Happy to be here

Juan Lopez, young Spanish entrepreneur discovering Slovenian tourism (more pictures)

I want to write right now, yes it’s my birthday! I’m getting older and older, but I’m very happy. I’m lucky to be here in Slovenia, I’m blessed to work here, I’m pleasant to discover this country.

I have a lot of things to tell you, so I’m going to start at the beginning. On October 29th I went with some friends to Budapest (Hungary) and we spent there some days; on October 31st we visited Bratislava (Slovakia) and on November 1st we were in Vienna (Austria), we had a great time and enjoyed it a lot.

But now I will tell you about my work. At the social tourism workshop I attended last week I met Barbara Vodopivec from Humanitas. Humanitas is a society for human rights and supportive action. It is a voluntary, non-governmental and non-profit organisation. Its principal aims are to offer assistance to less privileged groups at home and around the world, to represent and assert their interests, and to promote tolerance. And during this week I’ll make an appointment with her because I’m interesting about the things they do. So, in the next blog you will find more information about Barbara and Humanitas.

During this week I have worked on my business plan. When you start your business plan it’s difficult because you don’t know exactly what you want, you can hardly predict things such as the expenses and incomes that you will have …but in my opinion it’s useful because it can help you think about the target audience, define comparative advantages, threats in the environment etc.

Also, I have been investigating innovation in Spanish tourism since this is the area my host entrepreneur Dejan is most interested in. There is a public company whose objective is to merge new technologies and tourism: SEGGITUR. That company aids in the management, development, implementation and maintenance of various projects. I’ve read about different projects and I think there are two very interesting: the first one is the webpage http://www.spain.info/ they run because it writes about all the most interesting things in Spain. The second one is http://www.europeseniortourism.eu/, the webpage that promotes Spanish tourism for people over 55 years old.

Also I have searched for innovative tourism products in the region where I come from: Salamanca. Salamanca is not a very big town (160,000 habitants) that lies in the centre of Spain, 210 km (2 hours) from Madrid. Salamanca is very famous for the University and a lot of people visit the city because of their studies (about 30.000 students every year) and for the monuments (the old town is a Unesco World Heritage Monument). So, Salamanca is a city with a lot of tourism potential but if people don’t offer new and different products, I believe that tourism development will stagnate.

The last things that people have done in Salamanca to attract tourists are:
-    Build and Promote Golf Courses
-    Promote Rural Tourism.
-    Experiences new sensations in Palaces or Castles.
-    Enjoy the food and the wine: catas de vino, vinoterapia, chocolaterapia
-    Spas & Health Resorts
-    Visit bulls in their environment
-    Academies where they teach you to cut the jamón ibérico
-    Outdoors Sport: cycling, hiking, trekking, canoeing, ride horses, paintball
-    River Cruises

And I’ve started working in tourist agency Turag4all, a company that promotes tourism for people with mental or physical disabilities. In the next blog I’m writing more about the things I’ve learnt and the things I’ve done with them.

To finish I’d like to tell you that on Thursday 4th November my sister and her boyfriend came to Slovenia to visit me. Like a good host I showed them around Ljubljana, we took hundreds of photos: the castle, Prešernov trg, river Ljubljanica, Dragon bridge, old town, the Town hall, Saint Nicholas Cathedral, Kongresni trg, art deco buildings… and all the places that make Ljubljana a small, but very beautiful jewel. On Sunday 6th November we discovered Bled Lake and Bohinj Lake (the last one in Triglav National Park). What can I tell you about these places? Bled is all beautiful: the castle built on top of a 130 meter cliff overlooking lake Bled, the church in the middle of the lake, the sightseeings of the alps mountains… and later we went to Bohinj… I will not tell you anything about Bohinj because I’m visiting Bohinj Park Eko hotel in mid-November (so you have to wait until I write to discover Bohinj area).

As you can see, dear readers, I don’t have a lot of time to waste in Slovenia, time flies so quickly… and I have to discover so many things…. I hope you like my blog and I'll see you soon.