Ljubljana is having its record year for tourism – over one million overnight stays in the year and Visit Ljubljana Website reached the number of one million visitors in 2014.

Ljubljana is having its record year for tourism – over one million overnight stays in the year, record number of stays during the holidays in December, record number of followers and interactions on social networks, and the Visit Ljubljana website also reached the number of one million visitors.

The City finished the year in record number of overnight stays, as well as December and the yearly level. The Tourism Ljubljana daily follows the activity in four fifths of accommodation objects in Ljubljana, and continues to apply to tourism capacity. Based on information for December they have reached the key quantitative goal of the previous year – to exceed on million overnight stays.

The twelve months of 2014 realised 1.000.072 overnight stays, which is 6 % more than in 2013 (942,345) as estimated by Tourism Ljubljana. Key contribution to achieving this goal was made in the final, advent month of December with 21 % more overnight stays than in December of the previous year. Let us remind you Ljubljana has more than doubled its number of overnight stays in little over a decade – the year of 2013 records 444,138, while the numbers hit half a million in 2004.

The yearly records also include good results in number of followers and interactions on social networks as an important aspect of Ljubljana's promotion, and the Visit Ljubljana website also reached the number of one million visitors.

Two Prestigious Titles

A couple of important titles for Ljubljana in 2014 have stirred interest in foreign markets, which were received before summer: the Lonely Planet has awarded Ljubljana the second place on the list of most interesting European destinations of 2014 (Best of Europe 2014), while the City was awarded the prestigious title of European Green Capital 2016 in June.

Visit Ljubljana Website Exceeds Number of One Million Visitors in 2014

The Visit Ljubljana website had a very successful year. Two years ago the website was given an upgrade to responsive design, and has only been increasing in visits since then. Its recognition is essentially gained by the promotion activity and strong presence of Ljubljana in social networks.

The Visit Ljubljana website was visited by 786.749 people in 2014, and the important milestone of the previous year is the fact the website gas exceeded the number of one million sessions or visits – records show the number of 1.084.227, which is one fifth more than in 2013 (903.664) or a 19,98 % in increase.

The record visit to the capital in the last month of previous year was accompanied by the record number of visitors to the website, which has exceeded the standing record from December 2013 by 13,79 % (December 2014 records 128,767, and December 2013 records 113,166).

The website has been showing a gradual and constant increase in visits since the autumn of 2012, when it was upgraded to responsive design, enabling adapted viewing of content on mobile devices. The number of visits in 2012 increased by 5 % in perspective of 2011, and it increased by 33 % from 2012 and 2013. The year of 2014 boasts with 20 % increase in visits in aspect of 2013 - the growth trend is slowing down, while the visits on mobile devices has been steep in increase.

More information to illustrate the trend. In 2014 the 20 % increase in website visits marked the increase of only 2,61 % via personal computers, and 66,55 % via mobile phones and 63,22 % via tablet computers. These trends were even more prominent in 2012 - the 33 % increase in the Visit Ljubljana website visits marked the increase of only 21,76 % via personal computers, and 200 % via mobile phones and 166 % via tablet computers. It is also interesting to observe the final third of the year when the upgrade to responsive design was implemented - collective visits increased for good 5 %, visits from personal computers dropped for good 8 %, the mobile phones visits increased by 108 %, and visits via tablet computers increased by 1,244 % (starting points were very low).

The increase in numbers of visits is in great length attributed to the website accessibility via mobile devices, one of major trends in previous years. The number of visits has been increased even prior to the responsive design upgrade as it can be seen in the aforementioned results. Despite it was the upgrade that enabled the mobile phone users to embrace the website.

The reasons for the number of visits increase of the Visit Ljubljana website are also the moderately good use of the website on all devices, the quality web content and web advertising support, despite the low budget (they are increasing each year) and active presence on social networks.

Active with Bloggers and Social Networks

The 2014 has among other things marked an active work with bloggers. The Tourism Ljubljana has monitored the numerous posts and published videos on social networks, which went viral and have been actively co-created. The foundations of online presence was represented by the content renovation and the upgrade of the Visit Ljubljana website, along with “the experience shop”. The Tourism Ljubljana is one of the leading destinations in the world in that area, which is confirmed by the web content award by the Digital Think Tank and exposure of Ljubljana as an example of good practice on international conferences in digital trends.

City of Green Soul and Sustainable Tourism Development

Some of important steps have also been made in the area of sustainable development of tourist offer. Ljubljana has become one of pilot Slovenian destinations, which introduces the ETIS indicators (a system of European indicators for sustainable destinations, developed by the European Commission). Ljubljana was also first of Slovenian destinations to get estimated through the GSTR tool, which includes global indicators for sustainable destinations as well as the European and enables the sustainability comparisons on the global level. In mid-December Ljubljana has ranked on the Global Top 100 Sustainable Destinations 2014, the first published list of most sustainable tourist destinations in the world.

Numerous Introductions to Offer

Tourism Ljubljana has been very active in the area of innovative tourist offer and investments – they introduced a descriptive guided tour through Emona with theatrical inserts, co-financed the arrangement of a teahouse in the Botanical Garden, planted candidate roses for the Ljubljana Rose (Vrtnica Ljubljana) at the Tivoli Park Rose Garden, arranged the markings and signs at the Waterside cycling trail, developed new sales collections f souvenirs, and many other smaller projects for the rich in experience and competitive capital's offer of important projects.