MEET THE PEOPLE: GREG AND RONALEE KODRIC FROM SLOVENIAFORYOU
What is your connection to Slovenia and where is your base here?
We are Greg and Ronalee Kodric, the husband and wife team behind Sloveniaforyou.com. Our family hails from the mighty Primorska region or the Vipava Valley to be more exact!
What is Sloveniaforyou about and what’s the story behind it?
We started the website in 2008 and back then we used to look at the official Slovenian Tourism Site and cringe as it was hard to navigate and lacked specific information.
It was also somewhat amusing (and even annoying) that no matter where we travelled, no-one had even heard of Slovenia, let alone knew anything about it or where it was.
Therefore, Sloveniaforyou was born as Slovenia’s first independent tourism information website to help fill the void.
In the beginning we were focused with just uploading general information about Slovenia like things to do and the weather but then we started getting enquiries from people wanting guided tours and private transfers. We then reached out and began relationships with some great local Slovenian companies to promote their services and it grew from there.
Today the official Slovenian tourism website is one of the best around but we still enjoy promoting Slovenia via Sloveniaforyou!
Who are your customers and how do they find out about you?
We get enquiries from every corner of the globe like Canada, Australia, Brazil, Singapore and the UK as examples.
Most people find us via organic internet searches as a few of our pages have a good google search ranking but also from social media, external links, word of mouth and recommendations from partners.
What are the most popular and frequent destinations your customers take with Sloveniaforyou?
It depends on the service but with transfers for example, a lot of people need help getting to and from Slovenia from locations like Venice, Vienna, Plitvice/Split and Budapest.
Within Slovenia the major drawcards will always be Ljubljana, Lake Bled, Postojna/Skocjan Caves and the coast. Wine tours are also popular so Brda and Vipava Valley are frequent requests.
Over the years we have helped hundreds of people with their itineraries that have included the most popular attractions plus other not so well known places like Logarska Dolina and Ptuj.
When visiting Slovenia, what are visitors you come across most excited or most disappointed about?
People are excited and amazed because they didn’t expect Slovenia to be so beautiful and so diverse. First time visitors are usually travelling through Slovenia on their way to Croatia for example and are often disappointed that they didn’t spend more time Slovenia. They vow to return for a longer stay.
That’s the beauty of Slovenia, for such a small country it has so much to offer and every region is quite different in terms of landscape and culture.
How has a current situation of pandemic affected your services and how are you coping with the current situation?
The current situation has meant that everything has obviously come to a halt but it is a good time to update the website, reconnect with partners and make plans for the future.
What are your future business plans and projects?
We are using this time to update the website so it is responsive (we do all the coding ourselves so it is a learning curve!!).
We want to expand the site with more city guides for example and also to strengthen our partner relationships and promote quality services.
One key goal is to promote lesser known regions of Slovenia like the East of Slovenia which has some stunning scenery, unique culture and exciting tourism opportunities.
Would you like to add anything else about Sloveniaforyou, or maybe tourism in Slovenia in general?
We are always happy to help and work with prospective new partners who would like to cooperate and help promote Slovenia to the world!
Visitors please contact us if you need assistance with your Slovenian holiday as we are always ready to help and we answer all emails! – info@sloveniaforyou.com
