From 12 - 13 September the capital city of Croatia will host the first international conference dedicated to the relationship between tourism and the media. The conference will be organized by the World Tourism Organisation (UNWTO) and Croatia and under the slogan `Tourism as Headline News`. The conference will address the question why tourism, despite the fact that it is one of the leading and fastest growing world’s economic sectors, rarely finds itself in the media headlines or economy sections of newspapers. As an export category, tourism holds a fourth place in the world, after oil, chemical and automobile industries, but its economic development and meaning are often neglected by the media.

The goals of the conference will be the upgrading of the ratio and accuracy of the media`s tourism coverage, a highly sensitive sector in which negative, sensational news stories can easily damage an image of a country and ultimately lead to loss of work places. Considering the presence of leading communication experts, the conference will also be an opportunity for tourist communicators to learn about tools and strategies which will help them in their future work.

The conference is organised in collaboration with the Croatian Ministry of Tourism and CNN, as a world media partner, where representatives of leading world media houses and specialised tourism media, as well as communication experts from the tourism sector will all come together.

The Tourist Board of Zagreb
www.zagreb-touristinfo.hr

The Ministry of Tourism
www.mint.hr

UNWTO
www.unwto.org