The cooperation, which covers two sports seasons, was established before the start of the part of the season in 2024, and the HTZ and the Istria tourist board have become official destination partners of this elite club competition organised by the European Handball Federation (EHF).
We are delighted to welcome the Croatian Tourist Board and the Tourist Board of Istria County to our elite men's club handball competition, said David Szlezak, Marketing Director of the EHF, adding that they were certain cooperation would further strengthen in the future.
With the prestigious sports partnership, it was said, Croatian tourism gets special advantages from a number of rights in the Champions League, ensuring significant visibility at all matches, as well as a digital presence on the web portal eurohandball.com and EHFTV, the OTT platform of the EHF.
Commenting on the new cooperation, the director of the Croatian Tourist Board, Kristjan Staničić, said that this project presented an excellent way of additional promotion of Croatia as an attractive tourist destination on numerous foreign markets, but also as a destination that, with its diverse offer and quality infrastructure, can host major international sporting events.
Our country will again be in the focus of the sports and tourist public, said Staničić, adding that European league matches were played in as many as 19 countries.
The Champions League is a premium club competition for handball players in which the best handball teams compete.
Istria County Prefect Boris Miletić pointed out that sports and tourism were two branches that complement each other perfectly, which was certainly confirmed by numerous events and world sports competitions hosted by Istrians cities.
We also see this as confirmation that Istria deserves the title of European Region of Sport, which we will proudly carry in 2025, said Miletić.
We are extremely proud of the sports orientation of our region, and not only as hosts of sporting events and top athletes at physical preparations in our destinations, but also through cooperation with top brands, which we are now continuing through a new exciting partnership, said the director of the Tourist Board of Istria County, Denis Ivošević.
The prestigious cooperation includes the cities of Poreč and Umag.