This April, the Ljubljana Tourism public institute completes ten years of work.

In this period the institute's efficient internal organisation has enabled it to fulfil all expectations imposed on it by law, and also, via numerous original and proven features, managed to re-image the city into a lively European capital for tourists. In this way a wide range of tourists from all around the world are attracted all year round, while the global media report on our city as a hidden jewel of Europe.

In the first decade of its work, the institute has prepared a range of strategic developmental documents that define and inspire its mission. At the very start, in 2001, Ljubljana City Council adopted Strategic Guidelines for Developing Tourism in Ljubljana and Action Plan Tasks for 2001-2004, followed immediately by the Ljubljana Tourism Institute Strategy for 2005 – 2008. The document laid the foundations for the project Tourist Destination Ljubljana – development of organisational structures, via which the institute with 27 partners (mainly the carriers of Ljubljana's tourist offer) successfully applied for European funding to stimulate the development of tourist destinations. The project ran until the end of 2007, the result of this work being the final report as well as the Tourist Destination Ljubljana Strategic Development and Marketing for 2007 – 2013 document, which clearly defines the guidelines for developing tourism in Ljubljana with a developed action plan adopted by the City Council in 2006. Two years ago (2009) the institute was given new organisational form and the new name Tourism Ljubljana, with a legally valid signature from 1 January 2010.

Tourist achievements in figures

The number of guests that spent a night in Ljubljana increased from 194,715 in 2001 to 392,159 in 2010. As shown in the graph, the most successful years for tourists to date were 2006 and 2007, and after a brief decline in foreign guests the tourist pulse of Ljubljana has quickened once more. The number of tourist overnights by foreign guests grew in ten years from 391,421 in 2001 to 736,844 in 2010. The number of groups that the institute led on guided tours of Ljubljana rose from 834 in 2001 to 1,760 in 2010. The tourism management field in Ljubljana is one of the most advanced in Europe, as the institute offers guiding with highly competent leaders to foreign visitors in as many as 17 languages.

In the last decade Ljubljana has become a European capital that is recognised and attractive to tourists.

Ljubljana mainly achieved the substantial increase in the city's visibility in the period of preparation for EU accession and during Slovenia's Presidency of the Council of the EU. In this period, Ljubljana gained more interest in investment in tourist infrastructure and the construction of new accommodation facilities. The total accommodation capacity in Ljubljana went up by 37.4% from 2004 to the end of 2009, to 5,797 permanently available bedspaces. Every year, the institute has increased and improved the event offer in the City of Ljubljana's public spaces, which is as welcome to the city's residents as it is to its numerous foreign visitors, especially if we feast our eyes on the magic of the city at New Year, which draws visitors of all ages from near and far, or Ljubljana in summertime which beside its rich programme of street theatre is enlivened by costumed characters from history such as Urška and the Water Man, the Ljubljana Postman, Bourgeois Ladies and Gentlemen, the Lord Cigarette Butt Collectors and much else.

Ljubljana Tourism has accompanied the renovation of the city centre and the banks of the Ljubljanica river with numerous open-air events, partly by co-financing indispensible infrastructural acquisitions

Via the renovation of building facades, ongoing every year as part of the 'Ljubljana – my city' campaign, particularly in the last mandate in the Mayor's work to renovate Slovenska cesta (Slovenia Road), create a promenade from Tivoli Park to the castle and close the broader city centre to traffic, Ljubljana has acquired a substantial increase in areas reserved for pedestrians and cyclists. The city has been given a unique venue for social life: the Ljubljanica river with its metropolitan embankments, which have taken on the name 'Ljubljana beach', has become a real magnet for residents of and visitors to Ljubljana alike. In fact, the institute also contributed with the renovation of Trnovski pristan (Trnovo Embankment) in 2008 and Krakovski nasip (Krakow Embankment) in 2009. The renovation of Ljubljana Castle is nearly complete with its first-class culinary offer, accessible since 2006 via a tourist train and indispensible panoramic funicular railway, used by HRH Queen Elizabeth II and her husband the Duke of Edinburgh to go up to the castle.
In the first decade of the work of its public tourism institute, Ljubljana has been given a high-quality and contemporarily designed marking of cultural and historical attractions and an efficient system of guidance around the tourist trails, paths followed by tourists as they view the city.

Ever-better awareness of Ljubljana's tourist offer

Great quality shifts have been carried out in the field of tourist information. Tourist information centres received 119,497 visitors in 2001, compared with 253,025 in 2010, despite the fact that in this period a system to obtain information via the internet was set up, which frequently serves in place of a visit to a centre. Increased tourist demand has also brought to Ljubljana a range of new hospitality and retail outlets and improvements in the tourist offer across the City of Ljubljana as a whole, including its outlying rural areas. To ensure a quality tourist offer and an ever more attractive and social city centre, in 2008 the Ljubljana Mark of Quality was introduced, which uses the method of secret shoppers and visitors to bars and restaurants and is awarded every two years to the best venue and shop in the city centre by a special expert commission appointed by Tourism Ljubljana.

The Ljubljanica river as an especially enchanting tourist spot

Soon after starting work, the institute began to pay special attention to the Ljubljanica as a particularly charming perspective from which to view the old heart of the city. In 2003 the embankment at Ribji trg (Fish Square) was redeveloped, Dvorni trg (Royal Square) and Gallusovo nabrežje (Gallus Quay) in 2005, in 2006 Breg was given an embankment and last year an entry-exit point on Poljanski nasip (Poljana Embankment). A functional adaptation of the fire brigade platform on Petkovškovo nabrežje (Petkovšek Embankment) into a viewing terrace above the Ljubljanica, which is always full of visitors, who enjoy withdrawing from the many bars along the river to the tranquillity of the green river surface is also a new acquisition dating from the end of 2007. Boat trips along the Ljubljanica especially enrich guided programmes for children and adults, as well as the offer to individuals and small groups who may have fun on the river all day with good food and music.

Tivoli as a central outdoor gallery and venue for reviving the value of the old landscape in the city centre

Tivoli Park and its promenade linking Tivoli Manor and Ljubljana Castle have become an important component of the tourist offer in the last ten years. The institute has didactically remodelled Tičistan, an area intended for birds, while display boards have been installed on Jakopičevo sprehajališče (Jakopič Promenade) to enable the organisation of interesting photographic exhibitions. In 2009 the subway to Tivoli near the Museum of Modern Art, which had for many years been a victim of graffiti, was given a brand new image, the work of the original architectural studio ProstoRož. Last year, in partnership with the Ljubljana Botanical Garden, the institute began to manage the rose garden at Tivoli and the winter greenhouse, into which the Library under the Treetops moves in the colder months, before spreading far and wide around the park and along the banks of the Ljubljanica in summertime.

Substantial investment in 2009

The institute's investment into the tourist infrastructure made a special statement in 2009, when, as well as the subway to Tivoli, renovations were completed at Trnovski pristan and Krakovski nasip; the meteorological house in Miklošičev park (Miklošič Park) was renovated with measuring instruments on display once again; and while having the role of an information point, the upgraded glasshouse in Tivoli also offers a display of plants that is interesting to visitors to Tivoli.

The City of Ljubljana as a fully-rounded tourist area with a range of new tourist programmes

In 2004 the City of Ljubljana acquired the status of fully-rounded tourist area, and the Ljubljana Tourist Board as it was then called was licensed to carry out the business of a tourist agency focussed on incoming tourism; in February 2009 the institute further obtained the status to operate in the public interest in the field of promoting tourist development.
Increased tourist demand has triggered a whole range of programmes that attempt to satisfy the wishes of tourists. The following are surely among the most interesting: Co-existence between the City and the Countryside, which gave the countryside within the City of Ljubljana’s boundaries equal status in the Ljubljana tourist offer; The Hospitality of Ljubljana Houses project via which the institute promotes private accommodation; Ljubljana – City of Delights, which covers numerous investments into the tourist infrastructure in the local authority area; Ljubljana mosaic, which unites providers in the field of Ljubljana tourism; Ljubljana tourist card, containing the complete Ljubljana tourist offer and numerous benefits for card holders, and the European project Houses of Tradition, which was initiated before the Ljubljana Tourist Board was founded.
In autumn 2010 the institute acquired an Analysis of the Position of the Tourist Offer in Tourist Destination Ljubljana and the Success of its Marketing in Comparison with Selected European Cities, which showed that there is still much to be done in the field of the development of the tourist offer in Ljubljana, starting with preparations for inclusion in the TCM (Town Centre Management) project and the creation of the Regional Tourist Destination Organisation (RDO), which is to link the tourism arms of 26 local authorities in the Ljubljana Urban Region. The model for setting up the RDO has also been the subject of an application for European funding from the European Regional Development Fund.
The institute was also a founding member of the SPOT (Slovenian Power of Tourism) commercial consortium, set up with the goal to make Ljubljana even more open to tourists coming by air.

The Slovenian tourist offer's hub on Krekov trg (Krek Square)

With the opening of the Slovenian Tourist Information Centre (STIC) at Krekov trg 10, Ljubljana became a kind of hub of the Slovenian tourist offer. In this location, where it also has its business premises, the institute draws every visitor to Ljubljana closer to the Slovenian tourist offer and continually and originally builds upon it through the most diverse events and presentations that take place at STIC. Ljubljana Tourism has also signed a contract with the Slovenian Tourist Board on co-financing activities at STIC on an annual basis.

The upside of the decline in tourist visits in the dry period of the global crisis

The institute took advantage of the crisis that Ljubljana and especially the Ljubljana Tourism institute encountered at the end of 2008 and that lasted throughout 2009 to initiate a tighter coupling of tourist and tourism-related service providers in its area. It designed a number of breakthrough projects that were successful in acquiring European funding for the additional promotion of tourist destinations and thereby mitigated the effects of the crisis.
The integration of commercial bodies with the public sector in the tourist field has had a positive impact on tourist activities. In this period, Ljubljana has been inscribed on the map of European conference cities in capital letters and has played host to several global and European congresses and conference events. The impact of these events is far from being merely economic, but also contributes significantly to the reputation of Ljubljana and its visibility in the world.

Ljubljana's tourist offer online and in the foreign media

With the introduction of Ljubljana's tourist portal as part of www.ljubljana.si, Ljubljana's tourist offer became accessible to all internet users. In 2008 the website of Ljubljana as a tourist destination (www.visitljubljana.si) was successfully rolled out, whose attractive design conforms to the contemporary standards of the best web presentations. In the meantime, great strides have been made in co-operation with the foreign media, thus making a major contribution to the promotion of Ljubljana as a capital city and tourist destination, as well as being the best starting point to build upon the Mayor's current term of office, in which he has set the goal that Ljubljana should become the friendliest city in the world, a goal for which a new Deputy Mayor has been given specific authority.

Exemplary care for rich and comprehensive promotional material

The institute issues an average of 700,000 copies of promotional publications a year that are available free of charge at tourist information centres, at main border crossings, in hotels and on campsites throughout Slovenia as well as at congress events and tourist fairs and exchanges.

Awards for completed work

In its first ten years of its work, Tourism Ljubljana's efforts have been noted by external experts and the general public. In 2004 the institute took the Slovenian Tourist Board's bronze medal for the Ljubljana tourist card project and the same year was awarded the Slovenian Chamber of Commerce gold medal for its contribution to the development of Ljubljana tourism. In 2004 and 2005 Ljubljana was decorated by the Slovenian Tourist Association. For the first time in 18 years, Ljubljana took first prize in the city category for the campaign My country, beautiful and hospitable, and once again a year later. In December 2006 the commercial interest consortium SPOT was given the Slovenian Tourist Board's silver medal in the field of creativity in tourism. In 2007 the institute once again took the Slovenian Tourist Board's bronze medal for creativity, this time for the online map of Ljubljana. In 2008 the www.visitljubljana.si was a finalist in the Netko competition, and the Tourist Destination Ljubljana trademark was classified among the finest Slovenian trademarks for 2008 and given the Slovenia Superbrands 2008 award. In 2009 the Slovenian Tourist Association awarded the institute the seal of hospitality for 2009. In the larger city category Ljubljana achieved 3rd place, and was also awarded by the Slovenian Tourist Board. The institute was given recognition for dedicated and quality management of the local tourist offer on the official Slovenian tourist information portal www.slovenia.info in 2009. In 2010 the institute's web planner My Visit, which operates within the destination's website, found itself among the finalists of the Sower, an STB award for creativity in tourism. In 2010 Ljubljana took special recognition for achievement in 2010 in the Slovenian Tourist Association's campaign My country – beautiful and hospitable for the best kept city centre in Slovenia.