Slovenia's Tourist Board Appoints New Head of UK and Ireland Tourism

Slovenia's Tourist Board Appoints New Head of UK and Ireland Tourism

The Slovenian Tourist Board has appointed Mladen Ljubisic as their new Head of Tourism UK and Ireland. Ljubisic will continue the Tourist Board's promotion of Slovenia in the UK with a strong focus on Travel Trade, complimented by marketing and communications campaigns.

A new UK and Ireland strategy is currently being implemented by Ljubisic, which will aim to have a stronger focus on travel trade, with tour operator and agent management playing a very prominent role. It will also ensure that Slovenia's reputation and identity continues to grow as one of Europe's most tourist-friendly, green and sustainable destinations, putting responsible tourism at the heart of the marketing agenda.

The Slovenian Tourism Board has also placed emphasis on positioning itself as one of the EU's leading eco and green tourism countries after the capital, Ljubljana, was awarded the EU Green Capital for 2016. The city will host the Global Green Destinations Day, a two-day conference on 27-28 September 2016.

Ljubisic replaces Tine Murn, who has moved on to set up his own tourism consultancy Mind Brand. Murn left a strong travel trade legacy after spending six years in the position building new relationships with tourism partners as well as taking The Travel Network Group 2013 conference and ABTA conference 2014 to Slovenia. Media coverage instigated by Murn reached an estimated 51 million people in 2014/2015. These successes have helped facilitate a surge in visitor numbers; Government statistics show that UK visitors to the country increased by 43% year on year between 2014 and 2016.

Core objectives

The three core objectives that Ljubisic has pinned down for this new role are:
- Connecting and creating a new tour operator travel agent system;
- Providing a better understanding of online travel trade for new trade partners
- Continuing to build Slovenia's appeal to UK consumers through ongoing marketing and PR campaigns (the services of A Marr + Associates, Marketing and PR have been retained).