The Novi trg exhibition runs from September 14 to October 2, linking the city’s tourism anniversary with resident participation, guided tours and the fifth Ljubljana Tourism Week.
Ljubljana Tourism is marking its 25th anniversary with the “What’s in It for Us?” exhibition at Novi trg, examining how tourism contributes to city life and residents. — Credit: Matjaž Tavčar
- Ljubljana Tourism will open the “What’s in It for Us?” exhibition at Novi trg on September 14, 2026, to mark its 25th anniversary.
- The exhibition examines tourism’s economic and social contribution to Ljubljana and invites residents to help shape the city’s next tourism strategy.
- Free guided city-and-exhibition tours will run during the exhibition period, which continues through October 2.
- Ljubljana Tourism Week returns from September 26 to October 2 with workshops, guided tours, cultural and culinary experiences designed primarily for local residents.
(NEWS) LJUBLJANA, Slovenia, 2026-Sep-09 — /Travel PR News/ — Ljubljana Tourism is using its 25th anniversary to put a question usually asked by destination managers behind closed doors into a public square: what does tourism actually deliver for the people who live in the city?
The answer will be explored through “What’s in It for Us?”, a temporary exhibition opening at Novi trg at noon on September 14, 2026. Running until October 2, the exhibition traces how tourism has developed alongside Ljubljana over the past quarter-century, while examining the projects, economic benefits and partnerships that shape the visitor economy today.
Petra Stušek, CEO of Ljubljana Tourism, and Zoran Janković, Mayor of the City of Ljubljana, are due to open the exhibition, followed by a guided tour. The project is part anniversary retrospective and part consultation exercise: Ljubljana Tourism says it will begin preparing the city’s next tourism strategy this year and wants residents to take part in that process.
Resident attitudes shape the anniversary project
The exhibition grew in part from feedback collected in Ljubljana Tourism’s 2025 research on resident attitudes. In the first wave of that survey, 74.8% of respondents said their first association with tourism was positive, 82.9% said they liked Ljubljana being attractive to visitors, and 78.5% agreed that they and the local economy benefit from tourism. The same research also identified pressure points, including concerns about overloaded infrastructure and the effect of visitor volumes during summer.
That mixed picture gives the anniversary exhibition a more substantial purpose than simply celebrating visitor growth. According to Ljubljana Tourism’s September 9 announcement, the displays use concrete examples and data to show how tourism connects with employment, local creative businesses, public space, infrastructure and cultural life.
During the exhibition period, free guided tours will take place twice a week. Tourist guides will first lead participants through selected locations in the city, explaining projects and decisions that influenced Ljubljana’s tourism development, before continuing at Novi trg. Advance registration is required through Ljubljana Tourism’s event page.
A campaign built around the city’s own residents
The exhibition is closely tied to the “Because of Us, Ljubljana Is…” campaign, which is running across outdoor advertising sites and online. The campaign uses stories from both well-known and less-publicized residents to argue that tourism’s effects extend beyond visitor spending.
Ljubljana Tourism points to jobs, support for local creatives, maintenance of green spaces and infrastructure, and a wider cultural programme as examples of benefits that also affect residents. The approach fits a wider destination-management strategy in which the city has increasingly emphasized coexistence between visitors and local life rather than treating tourism growth as an end in itself.
The campaign has already attracted industry recognition. In August, Ljubljana Tourism said it had been shortlisted in the People & Community category at the 2026 Skift IDEA Awards, while its LUV Fest won the Tourism category. That acknowledgement reinforces the city’s effort to make resident participation part of its tourism-management model rather than an occasional consultation exercise.
Ljubljana Tourism Week returns for a fifth year
The anniversary programme will broaden between September 26 and October 2 with the fifth Ljubljana Tourism Week. The initiative invites residents to experience their own city from a visitor’s perspective through guided tours, workshops, cultural programming, food experiences and meetings with local creators.
This year’s edition takes inspiration from Ljubljana being named Europe’s Best Creative City Destination 2026. Many activities will be free or developed specifically for local residents, with an emphasis on creative participation rather than passive sightseeing.
The programme has expanded significantly since its launch. Ljubljana Tourism’s own best-practice review records growth from 11 participating partners in 2022 to more than 60 partners and over 150 events in 2025, with 95% of participants in the 2025 programme reporting satisfaction with the activities.
For Ljubljana, the 25th anniversary therefore becomes less a look backward than a test of how destination organizations can make tourism policy legible to the people who live with its effects every day. By combining an outdoor exhibition, resident stories, guided interpretation and a public invitation to influence the next strategy, Ljubljana Tourism is using the milestone to frame tourism as a shared city-management question rather than simply a visitor-industry concern.
