Proposals for Tourism Valorization: The Case of the Dragon Garden

Prestigious international and domestic recognitions of sustainable tourism practices in Međimurje County, along with well-developed strategic plans and the growth of tourist traffic, create opportunities for the involvement of private enterprises, thereby further enriching the tourism offer and ensuring a comprehensive tourist experience. In this context, the purpose of this paper is to formulate proposals for the tourism valorization of a specific resource in the county – the Dragon Garden of the Valkaj family, a unique combination of botany and ceramics. Through a review of relevant literature, site visits, and interviews with the owners of the Dragon Garden, measures are proposed that would enable the Dragon Garden to become recognizable and accessible on the tourism market, while creating added value for visitors. These include improving digital visibility, ensuring proper site signage, designing an escape game, developing creative tourism experiences and diverse outdoor social activities, enhancing international marketing accessibility, and introducing multilingual interpretative solutions at the site itself. These proposals can be combined, and their implementation monitored in order to preserve the integrity and authenticity of the Dragon Garden, in line with the vision of the Valkaj family and the principles of overall sustainability of the destination’s tourism offer.