Lipica, 20 April (STA) - Kobilarna Lipica, the company running the world-famous Lipica Stud Farm in the southwest of the country, is hoping for a good tourist season. Director Tatjana Vošinek Pucer says they expect 3 to 5% growth from last year's 90,000 visitors and around 40,000 tourist nights.
Lipica, a village in the Kras region, is known for its white Lipizzan horses and for what is currently the largest Lipizzan horse farm in the world.
This year, it is marking the 445th anniversary as the oldest stud farm in Europe, which the farm will mark with Lipizzan Day on 18 May.
Vošinek Pucer hopes for a normal year for tourism after the farm has faced various obstacles from the coronavirus pandemic and the war in Ukraine to floods and droughts.
Organised groups are increasingly returning to Lipica, with Germans and Austrians continuing to dominate, followed by French and Italians.
Their hotel is well booked throughout the season, as they have a good cooperation with a French travel agent, which brings groups that also stay at the hotel overnight.
They have also completed several investments, including the renovation of a racecourse. Renovations are continuing this year, with plans to renovate the saddlery in the new barn and the swimming pool.
At the end of the main tourist season, in autumn, Lipica also plans to start equine therapy, something they have been considering for a long time.
They have already contacted one of the Swiss institutes for this purpose, and interest is collaboration has also been shown by Slovenian providers of this therapy.
In line with the new law on Kobilarna Lipica, the company will produce a new ten-year strategy, announced Vošinek Pucer.
With new legislation in 2017, the site of Kobilarna Lipica was designated a monument of national importance while the traditional breeding and rearing of Lipizzan horses became intangible heritage of national importance.
