Diners Club® Croatia brightens the holiday season with 2022 EU Advent in Zagreb

^{(Photo: Sanja Matić)}

For six weeks this holiday season, Diners Club® Croatia was the main sponsor of the 2022 EU Advent Festival, an award-winning Christmas market full of holiday sights, sounds, and tastes in the heart of the City of Zagreb, Croatia’s capital.

Officially opening on November 26 and running through January 7, EU Advent featured numerous “houses” that sold hand-made crafts, local delicacies, and the like to visitors from around the world. All Diners Club Members enjoyed a 10% discount on all purchases at the festival made with their Diners Club Card.

^{(Photo: Sanja Matić)}

Promoting our Together For Change corporate social responsibility (CSR) program, every Thursday throughout the festival, Diners Club Croatia hosted the Diners Club Cooking Duel booth, a culinary competition that featured top Croatian chefs vs. popular DJs competing to make the best dish, with all proceeds going to the UNUO Association, a humanitarian organization dedicated to empowering individuals with disabilities, and helping children without parental care and disadvantaged families. DC Croatia matched all Cooking Duel booth sales to further benefit this cause.

^{(Photo: Sanja Matić)}

In keeping with Diners Club’s commitment to reducing food waste, each of the featured chefs were charged with creating “sustainability-inspired” dishes. The competition was moderated by Sandra Rončević—a food blogger and author of the book Mrvu onog, zeru onog (A Pinch of This, a Dash of That). While Sandra was in charge of judging and providing commentary on each of the dishes, the winners were ultimately decided by whichever dish received the most votes from the audience. Visitors were able to weigh in on the competition by purchasing a coupon for tasting dishes and using that coupon to vote for their favorite dish.

"We are truly honored that the ‘Diners Club Dine for Change Cooking Duel’, our sustainability-focused fundraising event that brought to life Together for Change, was recognized by our clients, guests and chefs. Throughout these six weeks, while we enjoyed the festive atmosphere of Zagreb Advent, we remained focused on our main goal of helping those in need through our contributions to the UNUO Association,” said Anita Markota Štriga, member of the Board of Erste Card Club.  “Diners Club Croatia, together with its clients and partners, has been participating in the Together for Change program with the belief that we can create global change through local activities.”

^{Anita Markota štriga, Member of the Board of Erste Club Card, awards UNUO President Vedran Habel $14,000USD raised for the Charity (Photo: Sanja Matić)}

During the Christmas and New Year’s season, Croatia saw a lift in visitors with approximately 600,000 overnight stays, of which the most were in Zagreb with 97,000¹. The EU Advent Festival also welcomed many local attendees and international visitors. Through this well-attended event, over $14,000 (USD) was donated through the efforts of Diners Club Croatia to UNUO, including $8,500 through the Diners Club Dine for Change Cooking Duels.²

The entire Diners Club Croatia team, in partnership with the Diners Club International and Discover® Global Network global marketing and sales teams, was honored to assist with this event. It served as a collaborative and beneficial way to support Diners Club Members from Croatia and around the world with a 10% discount, while contributing to an important local cause. Special thanks to everyone in Zagreb who made this special holiday event such a success.

Learn more about Together for Change, our Diners Club International global corporate social responsibility program, and see highlights of the event on Diners Club Croatia’s Instagram and Facebook pages.