Just a day after announcing a record year, Hvar’s leading hotel group strikes organic gold.
It is turning into a good news week for leading Hvar hotel group Suncani Hvar. As TCN reported yesterday, the company has just reported its best season ever, and with a newly refurbished Hotel Pharos opening on June 1, 2016 is looking very bright indeed.
One of the driving forces behind the impressive results has been a perceived interest in quality in all sectors of the company’s service, and the 52 million kuna investment (7 million euro) of the Pharos upgrade is a case in point.
One area in particular where the hotels have improved in recent years, as are clearly reflected in the results, is in food and beverage. From showcase offers, such as the first Kobe beef on Hvar to Croatia’s first shrimp house, there is plenty of interest on the Suncani menu these days, but this being Dalmatia, fine cuisine starts with one essential ingredient – olive oil.
Hvar of course, is known for its excellent olive oil-based Mediterranean diet, so much so that along with six other locations on the Mediterranean, the Hvar Mediterranean diet was inscribed as intangible UNESCO heritage in 2013, thereby making Hvar the only island in the world with four UNESCO heritages. With a policy of sourcing local produce where possible, Suncani Hvar grows its own olives and produces its own oil from groves close to Hotels Amfora and Pharos, and with spectacular results, according to the Suncani Hvar Facebook page on February 28, 2016:
“Talking about organic and local, we couldn’t be more proud!
On the 13th International Manifestation of Olive Growers of The Mediterranean, our Premium Organic Olive Oil (extra virgin), served in all of our hotels, restaurant and bars, won a first, GOLDEN MEDAL!
Not only that we were the only hotel company competing amongst „professional olive growers“ and their premium high quality products, but every olive (grown around our hotel) in our olive oil was hand picked by Suncani Hvar Hotels employees as a part of our 40 years old team building tradition!”
The hotel’s success comes a week after the inaugural Days of Hvar Oil Olive competition in Jelsa on the island, organised by the Jelsa Tourist Board and local authorities, in association with Spirijun, which highlighted the quality of olive oil on Hvar, and which was reported on by national television. Video report (in Croatian) here.
