The new Canopy hotel by Hilton has 151 rooms, a restaurant and bar, a fitness room, a retreat room, a transfer room, and two meeting rooms.
The Hotel Canopy by Hilton, an investment worth EUR 8 million by Zagreb City Hotels, opened in Zagreb on Monday. At the opening, Tourism Minister Gari Cappelli announced that a new EUR 1.05 billion would be invested in Croatian tourism in 2019, reports Poslovni.hr on November 12, 2018.
The newly opened Hilton hotel is the first Canopy hotel in continental Europe, and after Zagreb, hotels of this brand will open in London, Madrid and Paris.
The features of this brand are the cultivation of local culture, and for this reason, local designers Studio Franić and Šekoranja and Croatian furniture manufacturers were engaged.
Within the hotel, you can find motifs of the Croatian checkerboard, costumes, Kožarić’s grounded sun, Croatian science and art, as well as Zagreb’s traditional dishes, presented in a modern way at the ReUnion restaurant.
The hotel has 151 rooms, a restaurant and bar, a fitness room, a retreat room, a transfer room and two meeting rooms. You can view photos of the hotel here.
“This is the second Hilton in Zagreb. After the DoubleTree, we opened the Canopy, and we are expecting the opening of the Garden Inn next year. We are very proud of this hotel and we are happy to have such good cooperation. Croatia is an extremely important market for Hilton. It has a wonderful coast and we are already seeing that we will further expand there to develop our hotels. But the City of Zagreb is just as important to us because it is growing and we want to participate in that,” said the Hilton Development Director of Southern Europe, Alan Mantin, at the opening ceremony.
Minister Cappelli announced that in 2019, Croatian tourism will have a new investment of EUR 1.05 billion, of which EUR 626 million will be used to invest in tourism projects, while counties, cities, and municipalities will receive EUR 425 million.
The largest number of investments, or the largest amount of total investments is planned in Primorje-Gorski Kotar County, which will receive EUR 203 million, Split-Dalmatia County, which will receive EUR 197 million, and Istria, which will receive EUR 175 million, while the continental counties, including the City of Zagreb, will see EUR 355 million.
“Croatian tourism can no longer be seen through the seasons. Croatian tourism must be shown in another way. Today, I can say that Croatia has an 11 percent increase in guests compared to the same time last year, which is a brilliant figure,” said Tourism Minister Gari Cappelli, pointing to Zagreb, which today has about a 10 percent increase in tourists from last year and has recorded more than 1.2 million people and 2.2 million overnights.
He also said that this year they planned for less than a billion euro in investments and that in the last two years, the value of investments in domestic tourism has increased by 40 percent. With EUR 1.05 billion in 2019, Cappelli said it still accounts for about EUR 350 million in health tourism investments, making Croatia “a country with investment potential, which still expects its quality partners in the segment not only of tourism but also of the general economy.”
He added that he wanted to convey his optimism after the recent London fair, where the growth of the UK market was forecasted for 2019 to be over five percent. “This is one of the drivers we can expect to ease the growth of Croatian tourism next year,” Cappelli added.
On a journalist’s request to comment on reducing the Ministry of Tourism’s budget for next year, which will be cut by 16.8 percent in relation to this year, Cappelli said there was a disparity because the State Inspectorate would resume work next year.
“This is a big imbalance that naturally looks a bit ugly, but in any case, we have an increase. We have increased the promotion for Croatia, that is, what goes through the Croatian Tourist Board (HTZ). All the other projects we have planned are in the budget,” he said, adding that the tourist inspections, which have so far been part of the Ministry of Tourism, will be done through the State Inspectorate next year.
“And that is the difference that has been created,” Cappelli explained.
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