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Vuk Tvrtko Opačić Tourism Valorisation of Croatian Intangible Cultural Heritage

Table 2 Number and Structure of Sold Tickets to the Sinjska Alka Museum for 2015–2021
Year Ticket category TOTAL
Adults Students, pensioners, Family Preschoolers Group
children (parents + children) (5 persons and more)
2015 2,835 6,012 369 - - 9,216
2016 4,280 13,044 730 1,649 - 19,703
2017 3,432 11,383 504 826 - 16,145
2018 3,092 10,443 446 941 - 14,922
2019 2,572 10,253 418 600 - 13,843
2020 541 755 219 38 - 1,553
2021 1,031 2,305 278 51 284 3,949
TOTAL 17,783 54,195 2,964 4,105 284 79,331
Source: Sinjska Alka Museum (2022)

Krajina region required the opening of the Sinjska Year award in 2017 (EMYA 2017) and European Cul-
Alka Museum in the Alkars’ Courtyard. The first idea tural Heritage Award / Europe Nostra Prize 2018 in
of opening a unique museum where Alkar uniforms, Education, Training and Raising awareness (Sinjska
weapons, the Alka history, and all other related val- Alka Museum, n.d.).
uables would be stored and exhibited to the public The most significant number of tickets sold to
appeared in the first half of the 20th century. How- the Sinjska Alka Museum was in 2016, the first year
ever, the museum opened on 8 August 2015, on the in which the museum operated throughout the year.
300th anniversary of the victory over the Ottomans; After that, the number of tickets in all categories fell
this was how the Sinjska Alka, an intangible cultural until 2020. The most significant decrease in the num-
asset, materialised. The knights’ tournament, held one ber of visits was in 2020 compared to 2019 (a decrease
day a year, became a tourist attraction open to visi- of 88.78%). The reason was the COVID-19 pandemic,
tors throughout the year and gained its full affirma- which resulted in fewer tourist arrivals and reduced
tion in local tourism. The Museum set is modern and mobility of people. Museum operations were rare
interactively interpreted, attracting visitors of various during the lockdown, as with most other activities in
ages, interests, and knowledge. Besides the exhibi- closed spaces. Also, visitors largely avoided such ven-
tion, which includes alkar uniforms, equipment, and ues due to a fear of becoming infected. The second
weapons, alkar statues including statutes and rules in pandemic year (2021) showed slightly better attend-
digital form, including an additional exhibition area ance at the museum; the attributes for this are the stip-
for temporary exhibitions, the museum also houses ulation of more explicit epidemiological regulations
modernly furbished rooms for holding conferences, for visits to institutions in closed spaces, as well as the
seminars and various workshops, which additionally arrival of vaccines, which gave visitors a greater sense
enriches the local tourism of Sinj and providing op- of safety (Table 2).
portunities for development and congress tourism. Based on the profile of sold tickets and categories,
The museum has received multiple awards and rec- it becomes clear that the type of tickets for pupils,
ognition. Some of the more important are the Story- pensioners and children is the most sold and attribut-
telling Award by the Forum of Slavic Cultures in 2016 ed to 68.32% of all sold tickets in the analysed period,
(ŽIVA Award 2016), winner of the golden plaque of more popular than the category of tickets for adults,
the international cultural tourism award Plautilla in followed by preschool children, and then family and
2017, nomination for the European Museum of the group tickets. The predominance of tickets for pupils,

Proceedings of the 7th UNESCO UNITWIN Conference | 43