Foreign journalists visited Trsat Castle as part of the Golden Pen and further directed attention to Rijeka

Foreign journalists toured Trsat Castle: Rijeka further strengthens international visibility through the Golden Pen

The visit of representatives of foreign media to Trsat Castle on Wednesday, April 15, 2026, shows how much Rijeka has in recent years become an important point on the map of Croatian promotion toward foreign markets. As part of the Golden Pen project, which brings together journalists, editors, travel bloggers, influencers, and television crews from several countries, one of Rijeka’s central symbols of cultural heritage was presented as a place where history, the city’s identity, and contemporary tourism development meet. For a city that is increasingly profiling itself as a destination for short urban stays, such a visit carries a weight that goes beyond the protocol level. Every tour, every report, and every post on relevant foreign platforms increases Rijeka’s reach among audiences planning new trips and seeking authentic experiences outside the usual tourist patterns.

Trsat Castle was not chosen by chance. It is one of the oldest fortification sites on the Croatian coast and one of the most recognizable historical spaces in Rijeka. Located on a hill above the city, the castle has dominated the panorama of Trsat and the Kvarner Bay for centuries, and its present-day function is not only memorial or museum-based. It is simultaneously a cultural stage, a tourist point, an event venue, and one of the city’s strongest postcard viewpoints. That is precisely why, for guests from international media, the castle tour was an opportunity to get to know several layers of Rijeka’s story in one place: medieval heritage, the Frankopan legacy, the panoramic position, the contemporary interpretation of the space, and its role in the year-round tourist offer.

A project that promotes Croatia through other people’s stories

The Golden Pen is one of the longest-running and most recognizable promotional projects of the Croatian National Tourist Board aimed at foreign media. The project has been carried out since 2005, and it was conceived as a combination of study trips and a ceremonial award presentation for the best publications about Croatia as a tourist destination in the previous year. In practice, this means that not only published articles, television reports, or digital content are rewarded, but at the same time a new wave of interest in Croatian regions and cities is built through the direct experience of the space. This year’s 22nd edition of the Golden Pen is being held in Kvarner, and the central event has been announced for Thursday, April 16, 2026, at Hilton Rijeka Costabella Beach Resort & Spa.

According to available program data, 23 foreign journalists from 14 markets arrived in Kvarner, and the multi-day stay lasts from April 14 to April 17. The focus of the program is not only on representative locations and protocol meetings, but also on getting to know the destination through its cultural, gastronomic, and identity-specific features. This is an important detail because today’s tourism promotion relies less and less on general slogans and increasingly on an experience that can be conveyed through credible media content. In that sense, Rijeka and Trsat have a clear advantage: this is a space that offers a strong story, historical depth, and enough urban character to be interesting to an audience that wants more than a classic seasonal holiday on the coast.

From Austria to South Korea: a broad international circle of participants

Among the guests who toured Trsat Castle were representatives of media from Austria, Poland, the United Kingdom, Ireland, Italy, Slovakia, Slovenia, the Czech Republic, South Korea, Hungary, France, Germany, China, Sweden, the United States of America, and the Netherlands. The very structure of the participants says a great deal about the communication strategy behind the project. These are not only markets from Croatia’s immediate surroundings or traditionally important outbound countries, but also media reach toward audiences that view Croatia as a culturally interesting and growing European destination.

For Rijeka, such international diversity is especially important. The city cannot and should not compete with the classic model of mass summer tourism that some other destinations on the Adriatic have. Its strength lies in a different profile of offer: a combination of industrial heritage, urban character, cultural content, proximity to the sea, accessibility of the hinterland, and authentic city neighborhoods. When journalists and content creators from several countries convey such a story to their own readers and viewers, the effect is often more long-lasting than a standard advertising campaign. Audiences trust a report, a personal impression, and a concrete experience more than a generic promotional message.

Why Trsat Castle is a natural choice for presenting Rijeka

Trsat Castle was first mentioned as the seat of a parish in 1288, while a Liburnian lookout had existed at the same location even earlier. Later, the area was also important in medieval defense systems, and over time it grew into one of the key places of identity for Trsat and Rijeka. The City of Rijeka states that the castle is a protected individual cultural asset entered in the Register of Cultural Goods of the Republic of Croatia, and historically it is linked to the Frankopan heritage and the broader development of the area of former Tarsatica.

Today, the castle is not closed off in the past. The Rijeka Tourist Board, which manages the space, develops it as public tourist infrastructure with multiple functions. Along with a permanent educational display and interpretive content, the castle is a venue for summer concerts, theater programs, exhibitions, and other events. In this way, visitors are offered not only a tour of an old building, but also a living space that is included in the city’s cultural and tourist rhythm throughout the year. This is precisely the type of site that foreign journalists easily recognize as attractive for a story: history is visible, but not preserved to the point of being unrecognizable; the space is representative, but also functional; the location is symbolically strong, and at the same time photogenic and accessible.

In promotional terms, an additional importance lies in the fact that Trsat Castle, together with the Rijeka Tunnel, forms part of the public tourist infrastructure that the City of Rijeka entrusted to the Rijeka Tourist Board for management in the period from May 1, 2024, to May 1, 2034. This made the management of this space more long-term, which is important for the systematic shaping of programs, interpretation, and the tourist offer. For visitors planning to stay longer than a one-day visit, accommodation offers in Rijeka are also useful, especially for stays near city attractions and cultural events.

Rijeka is building the image of a city for a shorter, but content-rich stay

At the Rijeka Tourist Board, they emphasize that cooperation with international media is extremely important to them and that authentic reports and publications by journalists and content creators give the city valuable visibility in key foreign markets. Such an approach fits into the broader picture of Rijeka’s development as a city break destination. The city is increasingly targeting an audience seeking a shorter holiday, but unwilling to give up cultural content, gastronomy, walking, views, events, and the feeling of urban life.

Recent tourism indicators give additional weight to this strategy. According to data from the Rijeka Tourist Board from the eVisitor system, during 2025 the city recorded 232,782 arrivals and 671,264 overnight stays. In the first two months of 2026, Rijeka, according to published data, positioned itself among the ten most successful tourist destinations in Croatia, ranking seventh in total tourist traffic. In the period from January 1 to February 28, 2026, 20,887 arrivals and 51,664 overnight stays were recorded, with an increase in arrivals of 23 percent and an increase in overnight stays of 10 percent compared with the same period of the previous year. Such data confirm that Rijeka’s tourism does not rely exclusively on the summer months, but is increasingly strengthening outside the main season as well.

This is also an important foundation for media visits like this one. Journalists are not coming to a city that is only trying to impose itself, but to a destination that is already showing measurable results and profiling itself as a year-round urban point with its own identity. Within this framework, Trsat Castle becomes more than a monument: it is a summary of what Rijeka wants to communicate outwardly. Whoever seeks history will find it in the layers of Trsat. Whoever seeks a view will get a panorama of Kvarner. Whoever seeks culture and events will get a place that constantly changes its content throughout the year. And whoever plans a multi-day stay can also follow accommodation for visitors to Rijeka as a starting point for touring the city, Trsat, and the surrounding area.

Gastronomy, culture, and urban atmosphere as Rijeka’s package

This year’s Golden Pen is additionally marked by the theme of gastronomy, which fits into the broader Kvarner context. In 2026, Kvarner is also presenting itself through the identity of the European Region of Gastronomy, so the study stay program is not reduced only to sightseeing, but also includes getting to know indigenous products, local flavors, and culinary tradition. For Rijeka, this is particularly useful because its tourism story can increasingly no longer be separated from the gastronomic scene that has gained visibility in recent years, from local taverns and bistros to urban places that reinterpret Kvarner and coastal cuisine.

It is precisely the combination of heritage and contemporary gastronomy that gives the city an additional competitive advantage. The visit to Trsat Castle offers foreign journalists a representative beginning of the story, but it does not end at the walls and historical data. It continues in the city streets, on Korzo, in cultural spaces, in the Rijeka Tunnel, by the sea, and in gastronomic points that shape the contemporary experience of the city. For media that today seek content with several dimensions, such a whole has greater value than a one-dimensional tourist product.

Visibility measured not only by publication, but also by reputation

For tourist boards and cities like Rijeka, the greatest value of visits like these is not only that something about them gets published, but also how they are talked about. The Golden Pen rewards quality media stories about Croatia, but at the same time creates circumstances for new texts, reports, photographs, and digital content that will reach different audiences in the months ahead. When an editor in London, a blogger in Warsaw, a television crew in Seoul, or a magazine in Berlin presents Rijeka as a city where a castle, the sea, urban energy, and cultural programs come together in a small space, then such a message has international credibility that is difficult to replace with traditional advertising.

Rijeka has an additional advantage because it is not a destination that can easily be reduced to a single image. It can be a city of heritage, a city of events, a city of young travelers, a city of views, a city of industrial and cultural transformation, and a city that serves as a starting point for the wider Kvarner area. That is why the tour of Trsat Castle as part of the Golden Pen should also be read as part of a broader positioning strategy: international media are shown a site that is at the same time historically grounded and contemporarily usable, symbolically strong and touristically attractive, a local sign of recognizability and an entry point into the broader Rijeka story.

For visitors coming to Rijeka precisely because of cultural content, views from Trsat, and year-round events, accommodation offers near event venues may also be useful. It is precisely this type of stay, short but content-rich, that is becoming increasingly visible in the structure of city tourism. If this trend continues, the visit of foreign journalists to Trsat Castle will not remain just a protocol news item, but part of a continuous process in which Rijeka is strengthening its place among Croatian destinations that are recognized on the international scene for authenticity, cultural layeredness, and a different, urban experience of the Adriatic.

Sources:
- Rijeka Tourist Board – news about the visit of foreign journalists to Trsat Castle as part of the Golden Pen project (link)
- Croatian National Tourist Board – official description of the Golden Pen project and information on this year’s award ceremony on April 16, 2026 (link)
- Visit Rijeka – official description of Trsat Castle, its history, and its present-day function in the city’s tourist offer (link)
- City of Rijeka – information on the management of Trsat Castle and the Rijeka Tunnel and their role in public tourist infrastructure (link)
- Rijeka Tourist Board – statistical report on the tourist traffic of the City of Rijeka for 2025 (link)
- Visit Rijeka – publication about Rijeka’s tourism results at the beginning of 2026 and its positioning among the ten most successful destinations in Croatia (link)