Kraving for Kvarner

Whilst planning my trip to Croatia and exploring the Kvarner region, I decided to review what other bloggers had to say about their time spent in the area and give my opinion on what I felt about their blogs at the same time.

Credits

I would first like to give credit to the respective owners of the various blogs listed below and say a warm thank you for adding a fresh and educational perspective to my knowledge on Croatia and the Kvarner region. For easier reference to the blogs in my further evaluations below, I’ve given them abbreviations that will be stated in caps.

BLOGS:

1) DONKEY – https://www.chasingthedonkey.com/kvarner-region-katarina-line-croatia-cruise/#So_Where_Did_we_Go_What_Did_We_See (17th July 2016)

2) ABSOLUTE – https://www.absolute-dubrovnik.com/croatia-regions/kvarner-the-wonder-of-central-europe-and-the-mediterranean (20th March 2018)

3) UNFORGETTABLE – https://unforgettablecroatia.co.uk/kvarner-island-hopping-guide/ (27th April 2016)

4) GUARDIAN – https://www.theguardian.com/travel/2016/aug/28/croatia-kvarner-gulf-family-road-trip-cres-krk-rab (28th August 2016)

5) ADRIAGATE – https://www.adriagate.com/blog/en/beach-guide/top-5-dog-beaches-istria-kvarner/ (12th June 2018)

Format

I’ll start with the general formats of the blogs – because something that would capture my attention is usually the design of the blog before even the quality of the blog content itself. Needless to say, do tell me what design changes I could make to my own blog here. I would say that I really liked ADRIAGATE’s format - short paragraph followed by picture with each short paragraph being able to expand into more detail if clicked on. This is in comparison to ABSOLUTE’s blog which is basically one small photo and then huge long chunky paragraphs all the way to the end – great content but not really pleasing to the eyes. DONKEY’s format was also well done, you could go through the whole blog or zoom into the part you desired by clicking on the various headings in the mini content page at the start of the blog. GUARDIAN and UNFORGETTABLE were pretty straightforward with the whole blog listed out in one page with photos separating paragraphs.

Navigation

Aside from GUARDIAN and ADRIAGATE, I realized the other blogs lacked a map of the areas that were being covered. As a traveler embarking on a trip to Croatia, I was genuinely impressed by the gorgeous sceneries and sights captured by the bloggers. However, if I didn’t Google each caption, I would not know where in Croatia that these places actually were.

Personally, I feel that in marketing a country or its famous locations, there should be some form of mapping of where these locations are. ADRIAGATE made the whole navigation aspect even easier by indicating which part of the area that was covered at each paragraph (when clicked on).

Content

The first sentence in DONKEY already hits you – “Are you thinking about taking a Croatia Cruise? If not, you will be after this.” It kind of leaves you hanging on to the challenge like ‘what makes you think I’ll be so attracted to the Cruise’ and so you’ll just have to read on.

This is compared to ABSOLUTE which is simply a blog that I would go to for a full history of the KVARNER region. It’s like something out of a textbook – describing what building and monument dates back to when. Not being a big fan of history, ABSOLUTE will probably be a blog reference that I would use at the end of my research just to read up on a bit of historical details of my destinations once I already know where I would like to go.

DONKEY's blog basically goes on to give a broad overview of Kvarner followed by various areas that were covered using two or three liner descriptions. To me, it doesn’t market any specific area but it does give a general idea of everything you can find, I feel that this helps me narrow down on things that I want to focus on. I like how a small paragraph was mentioned on how to get to Kvarner to begin with. The other blogs lacked this aspect.

UNFORGETTABLE, like DONKEY, gives a wide overview on various areas. It’s difference however lies in the perspective. I feel that this is an integral part in marketing the tourism of the country. DONKEY recalls the travel experience via a first-person perspective which really syncs the reader into the feeling that the blogger has on the trip. To me, the more the reader ‘feels’ for the blog, the better the marketing. I liked this one part of the blog in DONKEY where the blogger was talking about his son “some did not look too pleased to see a toddler aboard. Sorry folks, he comes with us everywhere.” To me it really brings out emotion of the blogger. In contrast, UNFORGETTABLE feels like reading a brochure – “you’ll find this ... if you love that ... you can expect something”. Although it still highlights the various sceneries of the Kvarner region, personally I don’t feel as drawn into it as I am in DONKEY’s blog.

As for GUARDIAN, the perspective is also first person but the method of writing is different. DONKEY is more of recounting an adventure while GUARDIAN makes you feel like you are going through the adventure. This is because it’s written in the present tense. As such, this blog goes into more detail of each area covered rather than offering the broad ideas like how UNFORGETTABLE and DONKEY do. This blog also draws me in, differently from DONKEY but just as captivating.

I kept ADRIAGATE for the end because it talks about dog beaches in Kvarner more than the region itself. However, it still does a good description of the beaches overall and as a beach goer myself, I decided to keep this blog to plan for the trip. With regards to the perspective, it is written like a brochure similar to UNFORGETTABLE. On the detail of each beach, there’s actually a summary table stating what you can and cannot find and I think this concept is preferred for those who are doing a quick scroll and don’t really want the details and extra fluffy vocabulary.

Adverts

I was pleased to see that none of the blogs I reviewed began with a huge advertisement about booking a trip to Croatia or stating some FREE/DISCOUNTED travel fare. Personally, such adverts make me feel like the blog was more of a means of getting monetary credit from promoting air fares and discounts ads rather than having a personal touch with the reader.

Improvements

As a junior travel blog writer, I don’t really feel that I am in the position to give improvements to each of the blogs reviewed and critiqued. Each of the blogs have their respective good and bad points and I believe that the owners have their reasons for making their formats and content in that fashion. However, to come from a marketing perspective, I shall summarize the points that I think the blogs could include to better market the country

• A map of the areas covered on the travels so that readers know where the images are from

• Many photos to make the blog more colourful and to capture the first impression of the readers. However, it also shouldn’t be completely littered with photos as this would become way too messy and as readers, we do want to have something to read about what each photo depicts

• Written in a first-person perspective so that the reader feels more drawn into the blog. Although I can’t say that something in the third person will totally repel me either if it’s written well.