Visiting Kranj

Excited to experience Slovenia and get on with our research, we arrived in Ljubljana on Monday where we spent the night at Hostel Celica. On Tuesday, we took the bus to Kranj where the tourism board of Kranj had set up a busy schedule for us with meetings and other arrangements for the next 24 hours. We stayed at Hostel Cukrarna which has a manager who really goes that extra mile to make you feel comfortable and welcome.

The arranged meetings included both the Tourism Board of Kranj, the tourism commision of the municipality of Kranj, Hotel Actum, Hotel Creina and a meeting at the municipality with the mayor and vice-mayors of Kranj. We also had more informal meetings with other stakeholders.

For now our findings include the lack of networking and cooperation between stakeholders, the lack of a focus on specific projects at particular points in time, and the fact that Kranj needs to find a way to use its rich cultural and historical heritage in order to differentiate itself from other similar cities. We have listened to the various stakeholder, and will now work towards creating innovative ideas and solutions to the above issues.

Overall, Slovenia has left us with the impression of having a lot to offer. The Slovenes are very welcoming, open and friendly, and the sights are great. We cannot wait to present our innovative ideas in April.

Regards,
Anna, Pia & Pernille

Kranj - preparations

When asking people whether they have been to Slovenia, common responses are either ”No”, or “I have driven through Slovenia, but didn’t make any stops there”.

We are a group of three students, doing Tourism Master Program at Aalborg University in Copenhagen. We have got the opportunity to do a case study in Kranj, a town that wants to attract more tourists by re-establishing itself as a picturesque and culturally appealing town with rich traditions and archeological heritage. Our task is to go to Kranj for a couple of days and observe the town, and then come up with solutions of how this can be done. The big challenge is though: How can Kranj use its sources in order to create a strong profile that differentiates it from other similar towns in Europe? How can we make people make a stop in Kranj instead of just driving through the country?

We are really excited about this project, where our academic skills will for sure be put to the test and where we get the opportunity to use them practically. None of us has been to Slovenia before, and our research is at the moment limited to desk research, until we head down to Slovenia on Monday. We do though see this as an opportunity to look at Kranj with the eyes of an outsider. Perhaps we can see some links and potentials that locals don’t see.

See you on Monday, sLOVEnia! Pernille (Danmark), Pia (Denmark) and Anna (Iceland).