Guiding from the heart

The key to tourism is people. This week The Dubrovnik Times caught up with Toni Japunčić, a professional guide for the Gulliver travel agency. Pride and knowledge, with a touch of humour, is the best way to describe how Toni informs his guests on the beauty and history of Dubrovnik. And I obviously wasn’t the only one to pick up on his expert approach, Toni is about to receive an award from the Croatian National Tourist Board as the best guide in Croatia for 2014. How does it feel to be voted as the best guide in Croatia for 2014? How did that nomination and award come about?I have to say that it was very unexpected, I had no idea that I had been nominated. In fact when I received the nomination from Gulliver I was off sick so I really didn’t know that they had put me forward for such a prestigious award. I found out when I was guiding a group around Korčula, I received a phone call from the Croatian National Tourist Board to tell me that I had won. It feels a little surreal in a way, but it is also an honour to win such an esteemed award.Why did you start working as a guide?I started with Gulliver travel five years ago. I finished university and started working in the media but wanted to find something more concrete and had an offer from Gulliver. At first I didn’t really like the idea of working as a guide because I have never really enjoyed public performance or public speaking. However I decided to take a chance and it has really turned out to be a beautiful story with so many happy memories.I am sure that you have plenty of amusing stories after five years but what kind of feedback to you generally receive from your guests? I have to say that the vast majority of guests only have positive comments about Dubrovnik; I can’t really remember a bad comment. Guests admire the natural beauty as well as the cultural monuments. Certainly one of the most common comments from guests is how clean Croatia is. And just as importantly they say that all the people they meet are extremely friendly, which is a great recommendation. They love the openness of the people they meet and in my opinion that makes the difference for a good destination.Any unusual comments?I remember one time when I was guiding a tour to the folklore dancing in Cilipi in Konavle. It is a nice tour and quite close to Dubrovnik. One of my guests came up to me and asked “Are we in Serbia at the moment?” As we hadn’t passed any borders and as we were close to Dubrovnik it was quite a strange question. I have to say that these questions are very rare as most of my guests are knowledgeable about Dubrovnik and Croatia. In fact quite a few of the guests have been to Croatia before.Have you ever guided the same guest more than once? You would probably be surprised but it happens all the time. I get regularly have guests who have been one year and come back the following year on another excursion. Believe it or not I even have tourists who go on the same excursion more than once. I have guests who come every year and go on the wine excursion to Konavle, it is a nightmare for me because I can’t use the same jokes again.It is a horrible question to answer but why do you think you’ve won the award as the best guide for 2014? Yes, you are right it is a horrible question for me to answer; it is a question you would have to ask my guests. All I can say is that it is a real privilege to be nominated by my employer and I know that when they nominated me they included feedback from guests. This is the greatest recognition for me, satisfied guests.