November 18 (SeeNews) - Marriott International sees room for 4-5 hotels to open under its brands in Croatia by 2020, including in Zagreb, the company's regional vice president of development for Eastern Europe and CIS, Ivica Cacic, said.
In October, a consortium led by Avenue Ulaganja, acting jointly with Marriott International, was selected to develop the Kupari I tourist resort project near Croatia's Dubrovnik.
Earlier that month, Cacic told SeeNews that Marriott will act as an operator on the project, managing the hotel that will be built at the site. “[..] Kupari site is good because of several reasons. It has a very good location and direct access to the sea, it is big enough for an ambitious upscale resort development, which is not possible within or closer to the old town of Dubrovnik as there is a shortage of appropriate land plots that fulfill requirements for luxury resort,” Cacic also said at the time.
The signing of the contract with Avenue is planned for the first half of 2016, Cacic said on Tuesday in an emailed response to a SeeNews inquiry.
Marriott International will enter the Croatian market with its Ritz-Carlton brand as an operator, the official added.
Also in October, state-run broadcaster HRT reported, quoting the director of Avenue Ulaganja, Ivan Paladina, that the company plans to invest in Kupari just under 100 million euro ($106.7 million) in the next four years and build two five-star hotels with a capacity of 400 beds each and one luxury villa.
The Kupari tourist complex is a disused recreational facility of the military which includes several large hotels that were severely damaged during the Croatian war of independence.
Tourism is a key industry for Croatia, contributing around a fifth of the country's gross domestic product.
In September, Cacic told SeeNews in an interview that Marriott International's strategy was to put at least one property brand in each capital city in the region, regardless of its size or that of the country where it is located.
Elsewhere in Southeast Europe, Marriott already operates two properties in Sarajevo – a Residence Inn and a Courtyard by Marriott, while a Skopje Marriott Hotel is scheduled to open in the Macedonian capital this December. In September, the international hotel operator’s Courtyard by Marriott brand entered the Serbian market with a property in Belgrade.
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