Split and Malcesine awarded trophies

The awards for the best Croatian and the best Italian holiday resorts of 2014 were recently presented to the winners.

Both award presentations, which each took place at a ceremony on location, showed what a special resonance the atraveo award has generated in the years since its introduction in 2010. As early as the beginning of March - when this year’s winners were announced, official representatives from both Split and Malcesine stated that were very proud to receive this award and were looking forward to welcoming an atraveo representative to their resorts.

Vedran Matošić, director of the Tourist Board of Split, and his colleagues quickly found a good opportunity to stage the awards presentation in an appropriate setting. Traditionally, the festival in honour of St Domnius - the patron saint of Split - is held each year at the beginning of May. In addition to a large procession that forms the core of Split’s largest and most important festival, there is a colourful set of cultural, sporting and entertainment events within a twenty-day period, which regularly attracts many visitors to the city.
 

Among other things, the opening of the flower festival in the catacombs of the former Palace of Diocletian took place on the eve of the festival parade through the city. It was there that Pia Theresa Hasky, atraveo’s product manager for Croatia, handed the award to Split’s mayor Ivo Baldasar, in front of a large and high-ranking audience. Not only were representatives of the city present, but so too were ambassadors from foreign countries, such as Canada, the U.S.A. and Japan, among others. In a brief speech, Pia Hasky emphasised the significance of Split as one of the most important travel destinations for holiday home vacationers on the Croatian Adriatic. Here, she also quoted from some of the customer reviews on the atraveo site, which illustrated what holidaymakers particularly like about Split. Mayor Baldasar expressed his thanks and was especially pleased that it is the unique mix of a cultural and beach holiday which primarily makes Split so attractive for many travellers. Split offers a great variety of possibilities - whether visitors wish to immerse themselves in the long history of the city, which dates back to Roman times, wander through the streets of the picturesque historic quarter, go on a shopping tour, stop by the harbour promenade for a fancy dinner, or simply relax on the beach and splash about in the Adriatic.

Back in April, Bianca Bontempo, atraveo’s product manager for Italy, travelled to Lake Garda to present the award for the best Italian holiday resort to Malcesine (we had already reported this in our newsletter). By way of an exception, the award presentation did not take place in Malcesine, but in the provincial capital of Verona, where the province’s tourist board has its seat.

In the grand ambience of the medieval Sala Rossa ("Pink Room") in the Palazzi Scaglieri, seat of the provincial government, Bianca Bontempo handed over the award to Elvira Trimeloni from the Malcesine tourist office. Ruggero Pozzani and Loris Danielli from the Office for Tourism in the province of Verona also attended the ceremony. And, as a special guest, even the president of the province of Verona, Giovanni Miozzi, made an appearance and was delighted that the atraveo holidaymakers had selected a place in "his" province as the best holiday resort of 2014. In this context, he extolled Malcesine as a symbol that illustrates the beauty and the sights that the whole region has to offer and, at the same time, which demonstrates the efforts that have successfully been made in the tourism sector to overcome the economic crisis.

The entire atraveo team once again wishes both winners:

"Many congratulations!!!"

And keeps its fingers crossed for next year.

Incidentally, the presentation of the award to Moraira, the best Spanish holiday resort, will take place in June.

You can find a summary of all the 2014 winners as well as of the award itself here.