Istra Inspirit is a multi-awarded tourism project in Istria that enriches the cultural and tourist offer of the peninsula with the revival of historical events on authentic locations, through staged Istrian legends and myths. The Administrative Department for Tourism of the Region of Istria has promoted the development of the Istra Inspirit project since 2012 in cooperation with the Istrian Tourism Development Agency, IRTA and Istria Tourist Board.

Istra Inspirit is an example of best practice of creative and innovative tourism and underlines the value of existing unused resources of cultural and historical heritage of the region and finds innovative ways of involving different stakeholders in the tourism industry in order to  create tourist packages and new tourism products. Quality, originality, innovation and sustainability are the main characteristics that make this project distinctive and its ‘know-how’ recognizable, the aim of which is to be transferred to the stakeholders and create with them the story of the destination. Furthermore, the goal is to achieve the active networking of all the interested publics in the synergy of the creation of tourism destinations – family farm households, students, local communities, actors, artists and musicians, craftsmen and local tourist boards.

The 100th session of the UNWTO Executive Council was held in Rovinj in May 2015 for whose members Istra Inspirit had the opportunity to perform its experiences; after that Istra Inspirit was listed in the hundred best tourism stories in the world in the renowned publication issued by the World Tourism Organization.

Istra Inspirit was invited by the Scottish International Storytelling Festival to present Istria and Croatia at the festival ‘Open word, open world’ held in Edinburgh in October, 2017.

Istra Inspirit has been recognized as an innovative, creative and promising project and has been awarded many distinguished rewards. As an important cultural tourism product it has been awarded with prestigious awards:  

  • CBTour – the award for the best creative program of Croatian business tourism in 2012;
  • MRAK (Network for Development and Creativity) – an award for the most creative and innovative tourism product in 2012;
  • Simply the Best – award from the UHPA and magazine Way to Croatia for a creative and innovative approach to creating tourism offers in 2012;
  • Golden Goat 2012 / Capra d’oro 2012 – for the best innovative product in Istrian Region;
  • Golden Zoom Awards – Best Marketing Campaign for tourist destination in 2013;
  • „XVIII ediciónConcurso al mejorproducto de turismo”, FITUR, Madrid – nomination for the best international tourist product;
  •  Creative Tourism Awards – the most creative event in 2014. – awarded by Creative Tourism Network in 2015;
  • ‘European Cultural Tourism Network’ –  Contributions by Cultural and Creative Industry Category 3rd prize, registration with Reviving cultural and historic heritage of Istria through cultural tourism;
  • Conventa Best Event Award 2019 – finalists of the international B2C competition held in Ljubljana, Slovenia, 2019.

Presentation about Istra Inspirit can be downloaded here: ISTRA INSPIRIT PRESENTATION