Boris Šuljić: Life must deliver values, so that these values ​​have touristic meaning. Everything else is nonsense

In a pleasant atmosphere and good company on the island of Pag, we recorded a new video series - Thinking Out Loud with Goran Rihelj, owner and editor-in-chief of the HrTurizam.hr portal.

As we announced, HRtourism is expanding to video production through three video formats: espresso as a short format, thinking aloud (interviews, presentation of tourism services and products, video reports from events), and a longer-format thematic destination documentary story.

"Market trends are short formats, as short as possible or TikTok format, with a mandatory "good hook" at the beginning of the video, as all the advice says, insert subtitles, a bunch of effects, etc.... but that's simply not the format for me. That's not me, nor is hrtourism. Personally, I love and have always strived for a longer format because it gives the opportunity to say something more meaningful and through a broader dimension, relaxed, practice or life, focus on content and people's thinking out loud. Because we all learn every day, and for me the best "school" has always been people. Every day I learn from the news, books, podcasts (and the hrtourism podcast was a longer format) and primarily people. Their thoughts, narrative, experiences, views on tourism development.... is for me a "good hook" or content and focus on the person who is speaking and gives a wider context. And that's why the long format. We travel, film, learn from others and share our thoughts out loud", Rihelj points out and adds that the concept is simple, without a strict program or pressure, but with the goal that when something interesting is recorded, it will be published. 

The first guest of Glasno različanje by hrturizam is primarily a tourism ambassador and institution, and only then the owner of the hotel, winery and restaurant Boškinac from Novalja on the island of Pag - Boris Šuljić.

hrturizam: Thinking aloud with Boris Šuljić, Boškinac

It was difficult to cover all the topics in 45 minutes, but we focused on three topics that complement each other.

What is the motive for tourists coming to Croatia? Sustainable tourism? How to extend the season? How to raise the quality of tourism? - several dimensions explained in just one sentence. The answer is very simple: Let's be who we are - we could summarize Šuljić's thinking as the essence of it all.

Too simple? This includes the "Catch 22". The whole paradigm actually rests more on psychology than on business processes. The focus is on the community and society, not on the individual. The question is how? - is only imposed if we know why?

To achieve this, we would actually have to look within ourselves, our future, our community, our culture and customs, our family, our identity... or as Šuljić says: 

"We must not lose our lives. What is the second danger, we must not lose our way of life. I do not mean that we have to wear woolen whips and sing all day long in Novalja. Because people do not travel from Hamburg to feel like they are in Hamburg. They travel to see you, your way of life, how you behave, walk, how you shop at the market, how you gesture, what and how you sing, what kind of food you eat. For people, that journey is made up of many different experiences, and one of the experiences is certainly to see a place where living people live who have real lives. And now, if these lives are "fabricated", everyone looks like each other, we all behave the same, then the question arises why travel", says Šuljić.

Otherwise, Boškinac Winery It was built in 2000, and in the same year a 5-hectare vineyard was planted in the immediate vicinity of the winery. Since people have been feeding, invigorating and healing with wine for thousands of years, the attractive winery has an inscription on the wall with Hippocrates' saying "Let your food be your medicine, and your medicine be your food".

Boškinac therefore applies what people have known since time immemorial - that in moderate quantities, wine, especially red wine, is truly beneficial to health and spirit. The fundamental mission of the wine cellar is the preservation and care of autochthonous variety Gegić. This is just one part of Boris Šuljić's tourist mosaic. 

/ / / MarsOvca - another skillful branding of the Island of the Moon while raising the quality of gastronomy based on authentic food

Today, Boškinac is a phenomenal practical demonstration of careful thinking about tourism, which is woven with tradition, family, household, excellence, and an example of the tourism we must strive for. 

It's fascinating how the entire concept is arranged in Boškinac: from a small luxurious boutique hotel with 10 rooms, a fine dining restaurant with a MICHELIN star, a tavern, a winery and a bar. Each segment can function independently, yet still work perfectly together in harmony. 

The space was defined, but the vision and the entire concept developed over the years. Step by step, intervention by intervention that today forms a perfect mosaic. From my point of view - it is a perfect harmony and a picture as if it was painted by one of the most famous artists. Ultimately, it is, because Boris Šuljić is certainly a passionate artist, a person who lives tourism - a homoturisticus and an ambassador of tourism, a family man who creates values ​​through wine, food, space, ambiance and the overall experience.

Boris Šuljić, Boškinac: Life must deliver values, so that these values ​​have touristic meaning. Everything else is nonsense.

The weekend is upon us. Grab a glass of fine wine or make yourself a coffee and relax in Thinking aloud with Boris Šuljić. 

Share your thoughts on the entire narrative in the comments on social media, because two heads are always smarter than one. It is through such interactions that we learn and develop the most as individuals and as a society - through constructive conversation, examples from practice, and the best books - those books that experience and life write. 

PS hrtourism espresso: what is sustainable tourism?