The first race was held two years ago and the winner was Croatian triathlete Andrej Vištica, beating Slovenia's Klemen Bojanc and Austria's Sebastian Czerny.
The president of the Plava Laguna tourism company's management board, Dragan Pujas, has underlined the importance of sporting events and the sport infrastructure for the company.
"A million triathletes a year end the race under the Ironman brand and the Ironman.com website has nearly 32 million visits a year, which shows that being under the Ironman brand means a lot for the promotion of Poreč, Istria (County) and Croatia, and what we are doing is an event that combines tourism and sports, and it's especially important that we are doing this during the post-season, creating a new motive for visiting our destination," Pujas said on Friday.
Dubravko Šimenc of the Croatian Tourist Board said such an event, broadcast on over 40 channels, reaching 1.45 million households in 168 countries around the world, had great promotional value for Croatia as a sport and tourist destination.