These are the three winners of the Snovalec 2015 Award presented by the Tourism Division of the SPIRIT Slovenia Public Agency.
The first winner brought to Slovenia a game which attractively combines two sports, football and golf, and is known in English as footgolf. This is a novelty which is already very popular abroad, and it is being thoughtfully launched in Slovenia as a new tourist product by the company EN HEC. Players hit the football according to the golf rules with as few kicks as possible into specially arranged holes on the golf course. This new game has been added to the tourist offer of Bovec already in June and is to spread all over the country in the near future.
The second novelty is the application, SNAPP Guides, which is intended for professional and amateur photographers, who on their travels seek different information than regular travellers, since they are mainly looking for stunning locations to take their shots. The SNAPP Company is developing a useful and cost-efficient solution for this broad target group: multi-layered photo guides adjusted for smart phones. The goal of the company, which will offer guides for certain selected Slovenian destinations on the occasion of its launch on the market, is to become a “Lonely Planet for photographers”.
The international game for which you have one hour to escape from a locked room with the help of clues and riddles is already a hit in Slovenia. The company Enigmarium has taken the game to another level and upgraded it innovatively to take place in an igloo in winter tourist destinations. The Escape from an Igloo attraction was already included in the offer of Kranjska Gora ski resorts this past winter. With the support of the Snovalec Award, the game will be further improved for next winter and will also be suitable to break into foreign markets.
In 2014, the Snovalec Award was conferred to the Taste Kamnik project, the organic complex, Garden Village Bled, and Forest Selfness, which successfully evolved from conceptual designs into innovative Slovenian tourist products.
The Tourism Division of the SPIRIT Slovenia Public Agency has been promoting innovations in Slovenian tourism for more than ten years. While it confers the Sejalec Award to already realised innovative products, it also selects ideas with the greatest potential which it then supports financially and promotionally based on the Snovalec tender. Innovations which contribute to greater recognisability of the Slovenian tourist offer are awarded the Sejalec Award. The Sejalec recipients include the Celica Art Hostel in Ljubljana, the Thermal Riviera of Terme Čatež, the Cycling to Pannonian Spas package, the Kekec Homestead, Sloveniabike.com portal, Koper passenger terminal, Eskimo Village on Krvavec, Taste Slovenia Culinary Centre, Bohinj Park EKO Hotel, Gastronomic treasures of Istria, GoOpti, VitaGen and Raduha Pension.
Vesna Žarkovič, SINFO
