Joško Stella, director of the Tourist Board of Split-Dalmatia County, comments on the upcoming tourism projects this year.
Split-Dalmatia County continues to record record-breaking results. In December, there were 33% more arrivals than in December 2015, while the number of overnight stays increased by 13%. Central Dalmatia this winter settled in the top of attendances during Advent and for Christmas and New Year holidays in Croatia, and Split ended 2016 with more than 15 million overnight stays and 2.7 million arrivals – which is an increase of 11% in arrivals and 12% in overnight stays, reports Dalmacija News on January 13, 2017.
“These are huge steps forward, but the most important is our further investment in tourism development and the private sector investment. In the private sector alone we will invest 1.3 billion kuna in 2017. We will become one of the largest travel sites in Croatia,” announces Joško Stella, director of the Tourist Board of Split-Dalmatia County.
Stella continued with saying that this year, there will be a dozen new hotels on the market whose construction is in progress, including the construction of hotels and apartments in the tourist complex “Romana” in Makarska, which is an investment worth 230 million kuna.
In addition, there will be the future boutique hotel “Bačvice” whose value is around 112 million kuna. In Solin, “Dolis engineering” is investing about 45 million kuna for hotel “Porta Salona”, while the site of the former Croatian Railways in Kastel Luksic will be a small luxury hotel with a 30 million kuna investment.
“’Milna hotels and marinas’ on Brac is one of the major investments in the county in which the ‘Waterman Group’ is investing 105 million kuna, and after reconstruction there will be a four-star boutique hotel. With as many stars will be the future “Madora resort” in Podgora and the “Hotels Podgora” with an investment of 150 million kuna. One of the largest investments in the Makarska Riviera is the reconstruction of the hotel “Jadran” in Tučepi in which “Bluesun Hotels” is investing a little less than a hundred million kuna. The new hotel will have five-stars and 160 new rooms. The hotel group owned by Jako Andabak is investing 10 million kuna for the reconstruction of the hotel “Maestral” in Brela which will continue to have four stars and 45 new rooms. A small five-star hotel is planned to be built in Duce, and several small hotels are planned in Split. Danko Koncar of hotel “Medena” is planning to invest about 60 million kuna to reach the level of four stars and a new market position,” said Stella.
One of the largest infrastructure investments is the extension of the runway at Brac airport, which will expand the current runway from 1,400 meters to 1,760 meters. The new runway expansion will enable airplanes with 150 seats to land.
“We as a county Tourist Board invest so that we can provide incentives for agencies, destination management companies, and we are working on arranging bike trails. In the next year we plan to increase the number to 5,000 kilometers which is the longest in Croatia, and we will go on with the development of medical tourism, and develop cultural and rural tourism, but will not exclude our famous beach tourism, and tourism of the sun and the sea,” concludes Stella.
