Željka Balja was born on January 11th 1983 in Zagreb, where she completed her primary and secondary education. She has continued her higher education at the Faculty of tourism in Brežice, Slovenia, where she graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Tourism degree. During her studies she was awarded with a “Green compass” special achievement reward as well as Rector’s award for outstanding academic achievement in 2016. She is currently in the process of finishing her Master’s degree in Tourism.

Dynamic by nature, she has acquired a wide skillset through numerous presentations of different products and services as well as cooperation with family farms and small businesses. In 2017 she received was awarded as the most successful business secretary in the small business category by Croatian National business secretary union. She has also taken an active role in the organization of the Zagreb Tourfilm festival.

In the past five years she has specialized in advertising, public relations and health tourism management as well as successfully completed the first level of WSET – Wine and Spirit Trust education programme

Outside of work Željka loves spending time in nature, enjoying interesting movies, following tourism trends as well as travelling while getting to know new people and cultures. She finds herself very lucky to be able to combine tourism and film both professionally as well as her passion.