Destination: Zagreb brought together 131 students and mentors in the 16th edition of the project on sustainable tourism
On the premises of Moneterra – the Money Museum of the Croatian National Bank, on 13 May 2026, the 16th edition of the project Destination: Zagreb was presented, an educational programme through which Zagreb secondary schools, specifically those in which tourism is not the primary field of education, are encouraged to explore the tourist, cultural, natural and social values of the city. According to the announcement by the Zagreb Tourist Board, the project is implemented by the ZTB in cooperation with the City Office for Education, Sport and Youth, and this year's edition was carried out with the Faculty of Economics and Business of the University of Zagreb and WWF Adria. This year, 131 students and mentors from six Zagreb secondary schools took part in the programme, which shows that after sixteen editions the project continues to develop as a space in which young people can reflect on Zagreb from the perspective of residents, visitors and future experts of various profiles. The presentation at Moneterra also gave the project an additional educational dimension because it is a space of the Croatian National Bank dedicated to money, banking, personal finance and financial literacy. In this way, the topic of tourism was connected with questions of sustainable development, responsible behaviour, entrepreneurship, cultural interpretation and understanding the city as a living space, not merely as a set of tourist attractions.
Six schools, different ideas and the same goal: to understand Zagreb better
According to the published information about the 16th edition, the project included the Centre for Education and Upbringing with the work Selfie Tour through Zagreb – A City for Your Shot, the Humanities Gymnasium with the projects Zagreb Time Machine and ZIO – AI Assistant, the Industrial Mechanical Engineering School with the project Hidden Treasure, the Second Gymnasium with the work Zen Zagreb, the Fourth Gymnasium with the project Zagrebi ZeGe, and the Eighteenth Gymnasium with the project Discovering Zagreb's Beasts. Already from the titles of the students' works, it is clear that the topics covered multiple layers of the city's identity: from digital presentation and artificial intelligence to hidden locations, everyday urban culture, calmer rhythms of the city and interpretation of the animal world in the Zagreb context. Such an approach corresponds to the very idea of the project, which introduces students to tourism not only as an economic activity, but also as a way of reading space, heritage, local stories and behaviour toward the environment. In this way, presentation, research and teamwork skills are developed, and Zagreb is viewed as a space in which the tourist offer can be upgraded with authentic, locally grounded content.
A project that has been running since the 2010/2011 school year
The Zagreb Tourist Board states on the official project page that Destination: Zagreb was launched during the 2010/2011 school year, under the then name Culture of Tourism. According to the same source, the ZTB developed the project in cooperation with the City Office for Education, Sport and Youth in order to bring the importance of tourism for Zagreb closer to students, teachers and principals of secondary schools in the long term. Over the years, the project has retained its basic idea: during a one-semester extracurricular activity, students, in agreement with their leaders, design and implement projects with a tourism theme and then present them publicly. According to data from this year's announcement, around 2200 students from about one hundred secondary schools have participated in the programme since its implementation began. This figure shows that this is not a one-off promotional activity, but a long-term educational model that has remained in the school system long enough to create continuity, experience and recognisability.
An important part of the project is the fact that it is aimed precisely at schools in which tourism and hospitality are not primary in education. In this way, the topic of tourism expands beyond specialised programmes and reaches students who are educated in areas such as gymnasium programmes, technical occupations, social-humanistic fields, economics, industry or other professions. According to the ZTB's description, the goal is to encourage additional acquisition of knowledge, the development of an entrepreneurial spirit and positive attitudes toward culture and tourism.
Martina Bienenfeld: young people confirm the importance of authentic tourism
Speaking about the results of this year's edition, Martina Bienenfeld, director of the Zagreb Tourist Board, according to the organiser's announcement, expressed pride in the female and male students who took part in the project and showed commitment, creativity and interest in their city. She stated that with their ideas and reflections on the tourist, cultural and natural potential of Zagreb, they once again confirmed the importance of involving young people in the development of sustainable and authentic tourism. Bienenfeld particularly emphasised that such an approach is also recognised by UN Tourism, the specialised organisation of the United Nations responsible for promoting responsible, sustainable and universally accessible tourism, which has supported the project since 2024. According to her words, this support confirms the quality and relevance of the project in a broader international context. She also thanked the Moneterra team for their hospitality and contribution to raising young people's awareness of the importance of financial literacy, which connected this year's presentation of tourism education with the topic of responsible management of personal and social resources.
The support of UN Tourism is also important because the project fits into the global direction in which tourism is increasingly viewed through sustainability, accessibility, local inclusion and education. In its public information, UN Tourism emphasises the promotion of competitive and sustainable tourism policies, market knowledge, education and training, as well as the role of tourism in development. In the case of the Zagreb project, these principles are not conveyed abstractly, but through work with students who explore their own city, recognise its values and learn to present them in a way that does not reduce the destination to a superficial postcard. This is especially relevant for urban destinations, where the balance between the interests of visitors, the needs of residents and the preservation of the city's identity must be carefully built.
Sustainable tourism is an increasingly important part of destination management
The context in which the project is implemented is additionally important because sustainable destination management in Croatia has received a clearer legal and planning framework. According to the Ministry of Tourism and Sport, the Tourism Act, which entered into force on 1 January 2024, is the fundamental legislative framework for managing tourism development in the direction of sustainability. Narodne novine states that this act regulates the tourism system, management of development in the direction of sustainability, ensuring sustainability, encouraging investments, protection and valorisation of the resource base and other issues important for tourism. In April 2026, the City of Zagreb published a proposal for the Destination Management Plan: Zagreb, which was described as a four-year strategic document focused on the development of a sustainable destination. According to the official announcement by the City, the document is based on sustainability indicators, analysis of tourist flows and calculation of carrying capacities. It is precisely in such an environment that the school project gains broader significance because the students' ideas fit into the discussion on how Zagreb should develop tourism in a way that respects space, residents, heritage and the environment.
Destination management can no longer be viewed only through the number of arrivals and overnight stays. Data remain important, but sustainable tourism also requires answers to questions of pressure on public space, transport accessibility, interpretation of cultural heritage, involvement of local communities, more balanced development of content and protection of natural values. According to the Ordinance on the methodology for preparing a destination management plan, the purpose of such a plan is to determine the direction of destination development in accordance with strategic planning acts, spatial plans, the cultural heritage management plan and other valid plans and regulations, with the aim of achieving the competitiveness, resilience and sustainability of the destination. Through Destination: Zagreb, students enter such a way of thinking precisely at the initial, educational level. Their projects may not be planning documents, but they can show how young people see the city, which values they recognise and where they notice space for a different, more careful and more contemporary tourist interpretation.
Zagreb as a classroom outside the classroom
The special feature of the project lies in the fact that Zagreb becomes a classroom outside the classroom. In doing so, students do not process only a lesson about tourism, but encounter concrete spaces, institutions, public areas, cultural layers, natural features and everyday habits that create the identity of the city. Such a learning model contributes to understanding the city as a whole in which history, economics, the environment, social relations and modern technology intertwine. When students design a route, a digital tool, an interpretation of a hidden place or a topic connected with the animal and natural world, they simultaneously practise research, selection of information, critical thinking and communication with the public. These are skills that go beyond the framework of tourism and can be useful in further education and work.
According to the ZTB's description, the project also includes the active involvement of students in programmes for environmental protection and the protection of the living environment, improving the quality of life, preserving ethnological, historical and cultural heritage, and raising the level of hospitality. In this way, tourism is presented as a cross-sectoral topic, not as a separate activity that exists only for visitors. In a city such as Zagreb, which is simultaneously developing as a cultural, educational, business, administrative and tourist centre, such an approach can help young people become involved earlier in the discussion about what makes a quality urban experience. For visitors who come to Zagreb because of cultural programmes, school and professional events, museums, festivals or sightseeing, accommodation offers in Zagreb may also be useful, but the meaning of a project like this is not merely the consumption of tourist services. Its importance lies in creating better-informed citizens who understand that tourism can be a development opportunity only if it is aligned with the public interest and quality of life.
Moneterra as a meeting point of tourism and financial literacy
This year's presentation was held at Moneterra, the Money Museum of the Croatian National Bank, which gave the project an additional layer of meaning. According to information from the CNB and Moneterra, this space is conceived as an information and educational centre that brings visitors closer to the story of money, its history, use and role in everyday life. Through exhibits, video content, research and games, Moneterra explains to visitors of different ages topics related to money, banking, personal finance, monetary policy and the role and tasks of central banks. In the context of the project Destination: Zagreb, such a space reminds us that sustainable tourism is not only a matter of attractive programmes, but also a matter of responsible planning, financial literacy and understanding economic effects. Young people who reflect on tourism also need to understand how value is created, how it is managed and how development can be directed so that it benefits the community in the long term.
Connecting tourism education with financial literacy is especially important because, in practice, tourism projects must be shaped as feasible, responsible and socially useful ideas. Creativity is necessary, but it is not sufficient in itself if there is no understanding of the audience, costs, public space, maintenance, communication and impact on the local community. In this sense, the presentation of students' works at Moneterra symbolically connects two areas that are often viewed separately in education: cultural and tourist interpretation on the one hand, and financial and economic literacy on the other. Such a connection can help students see their own proposals not only as school assignments, but as the seeds of possible projects that must be understandable, useful, responsible and feasible.
Tourism results show the importance of thoughtful development
The broader context of the project can also be seen in Zagreb's tourism indicators. According to data from the Zagreb Tourist Board taken from the eVisitor system, in 2025 Zagreb recorded 2,772,658 overnight stays, which is an index of 103 compared with 2024. Foreign tourists accounted for 2,213,015 overnight stays, while domestic tourists accounted for 559,643 overnight stays, according to ZTB data published in January 2026. The Croatian Bureau of Statistics stated for May 2025 that the City of Zagreb was the destination with the highest number of overnight stays by domestic tourists, a total of 42 thousand, while foreign tourists recorded 222 thousand overnight stays in the same month. These data confirm that Zagreb has an important role in Croatian urban tourism, but at the same time they show why destination development must be planned in the long term. When a destination attracts a large number of visitors, its success does not depend only on market visibility, but also on the ability to manage the experience, space and relationship with residents well.
In such an environment, programmes such as Destination: Zagreb have value that goes beyond a single school year. They help create a generation that understands that the tourist attractiveness of a city cannot be separated from its cultural heritage, green spaces, museums, public transport, neighbourhood stories, accessibility of information, responsible behaviour and the quality of everyday life. Students who today design routes, digital assistants, interpretations of hidden places or thematic stories may tomorrow participate in the development of public, private, cultural or educational projects. That is precisely the message of the 16th edition: Zagreb as a destination develops both through major strategic documents and through small, concrete student ideas that show how young people see the values of the city in which they live, learn and create.
Sources:
- Zagreb Tourist Board / Infozagreb – official page of the Destination: Zagreb project and description of the goals of the educational initiative (link)
- Dnevnik.hr – announcement on the presentation of the 16th edition of the project, participants, schools and the statement by Martina Bienenfeld (link)
- City of Zagreb – proposal for the Destination Management Plan: Zagreb and the context of sustainable destination development (link)
- Ministry of Tourism and Sport of the Republic of Croatia – tools and regulations for managing tourism development in a destination (link)
- Narodne novine – Tourism Act, NN 156/2023 (link)
- Narodne novine – Ordinance on the methodology for preparing a destination management plan, NN 112/2024 (link)
- Zagreb Tourist Board – tourist arrivals and overnight stays in 2025 according to the eVisitor system (link)
- Croatian Bureau of Statistics – tourist arrivals and overnight stays in commercial accommodation in May 2025 (link)
- Moneterra – information about the Money Museum of the Croatian National Bank and the educational exhibition (link)