It's always good to take part in some international project, especially when you can find some mutual points with those who start such projects. With that in mind, it was impossible for me to refuse Tourist Board Split's offer to participate in See Together Challenge. Reasons are simple: as a tour guide and in love with my hometown, it's great to have an opportunity to promote it. Second, as a dedicated UNESCO World Heritage List fan, I was delighted to let people learn about Diocletian's Palace, and to learn myself about other sites in different countries.
What is See Together Challenge? In short, it's a streaming project from October 21 to 27, launched by South Korean documentary production company Magenta, with the National Korean Committee for UNESCO, and South Korea Telecom as co-organizers. Project was funded by the Ministry of Science and ICT of Korea, and supported by the Korea Radio Promotion Association. The videos will also be edited into a two-part documentary on social distancing, which will be aired on KBS, a national broadcaster in South Korea. Also, streaming will stay available for watching on YouTube.
Concept is actually pretty simple; people from UNESCO World Heritage sites takes turn in one-hour YouTube streams to introduce those sites to worldwide viewers. Whole idea came because of COVID-19 pandemic, which limited travelling possibilities, and to lift spirits of people who would otherwise travel to some of sites presented in this project. Of course, it also included task of raising awareness of UNESCO World Heritage Sites and the importance of their preservation.
With all Croatia's beauties and spectacular natural and historical heritage, it's great honour that those running this project selected Split to represent our country, ahead of Dubrovnik, Plitvice, Šibenik, Zadar, etc.
Split and my turn came on Thursday, October 22 at 10 am Croatian times. Just like the project's name says, it was a challenge, maybe among the biggest I had in my guiding career. I do have a lot of journalism experience, and I guided tourists around the old town Split hundreds of times, but this time I had to film it by myself, walk through the Diocletian's Palace, and to talk about it. I can only hope I did it in a proper way.
It was definitely great experience, and as a traveller myself I hope I made at least some people to visit Split and stroll around Diocletian's Palace. Some day, when pandemic passes one way or another. See you in Split!