March the 14th, 2021 - The Arena Hospitality Group investments keep on going despite the economic woes caused by the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. Hotel Brioni with its impressive 227 premium rooms is due to open its doors to guests this summer season.

As Barbara Ban/Novac writes, despite another uncertain tourist season ahead of us, the well known Pula hotel group Arena Hospitality Group (AHG) announced the continuation of its investments and the opening of the completely renovated Hotel Brioni in the beautiful Istrian city of Pula this summer. To complete this investment, this hotel group secured a loan of 180 million kuna back at the end of December 2020.

¨The total investment amounts to 260 million kuna. The opening of Hotel Brioni is scheduled for the summer of this year. Our ambition is to return this facility to its former status of one of the leading luxury hotels on the Adriatic coast. When completed, Hotel Brioni will offer 227 premium rooms on seven floors, three indoor and outdoor pools, a spacious wellness centre with saunas and relaxation rooms, a gym, a children's playground, several restaurants and bars, as well as facilities for meetings and events,¨ announced the CEO of AHG, Reli Slonim, in the company´s annual report.

At the same time, he announced other investments in the upcoming period - in the city hotel in Zagreb, Hotel 88 in Belgrade, which the group bought last year, and in the Pula hotel Riviera.

¨We´re continuing with our investment programme in the total amount of about 350 million kuna. In addition to Hotel Brioni, our hotels in Belgrade and Budapest should be refreshed again during the year, and the start of the renovation of the hotel in Zagreb and the Riviera Hotel in Pula is expected this year and next year. Namely, in order to strengthen our presence across Central and Eastern Europe, AHG signed a 45-year lease agreement for the development of a hotel with 115 rooms in the very centre of Zagreb. This was followed by the acquisition of the 88 Rooms Belgrade hotel for 44.9 million kuna. Back in April 2020, we reached a settlement with the state and bought the Riviera Pula hotel for 36.5 million kuna. This will allow us to start the renovation of this historic hotel and position it as a new branded facility with 80 rooms,¨ announced Slonim.

For the upcoming tourist season, he says last minute bookings will reign strongest.

¨Although we cannot know for sure how long the current lockdowns will last across Europe and the dynamics of the vaccination rollout. We´re currently preparing for the pre-season and we anticipate improved business for Croatia in the summer when compared to last year. Reservations for the summer season are underway, although we expect, as last year, an increased trend of last minute bookings and arrivals,¨ concluded Slonim.

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As Barbara Ban/Novac writes on the 27th of January, 2020, Pula's Arena Hospitality Group hotelier from is investing as much as 363 million kuna in its portfolio in southern Istria this year.

The largest investment, of about 245 million kuna, is the one in Pula's Hotel Brioni on Verudela, which has been expected for many years, and will last two years, then they'll invest in a nearby apartment complex called Arena Verudela Beach and the Medulin campsite Arena Grand Kažela.

The complete renovation and repositioning of the popular Brioni Hotel began this year. The opening of the newly renovated hotel is planned for the summer season of 2021, and the facility will be closed throughout this year. The hotel was built back in the early 1970s and was one of the most popular in the former Yugoslavia. Many celebrities of the time stayed there. The seven-storey hotel will remodel its rooms and other facilities such as meeting and conference rooms. It will also boast an indoor pool, a wellness centre with saunas and relaxation rooms, a fitness centre and an outdoor infinity pool with its own sunbathing area.

After the complete renovation, it will be a contemporary luxury hotel with 227 rooms and suites and the ambition to become the mainstay of the Arena Hospitality Group's hotel business, a statement from the company said.

Several restaurants and bars at the hotel will offer their guests a varied gastronomic offer ranging from local, Mediterranean cuisine to international specialities from around the world. After the investment, the hotel will be branded a world-renowned high quality hotel brand, the Arena Hospitality Group added.

Not far from the Brioni Hotel in the Verudela area, the renovation of the Arena Verudela Beach apartment complex, worth a massive 68 million kuna, will continue. Last year, ten accommodation units were renovated, and this year, the remaining 146 apartment units are to be renovated too.

''These modernly furnished and fully equipped apartments for four to six people will be categorised with four stars. In addition to the accommodation units, the Lighthouse restaurant, located on the beach in front of the resort itself, will be completely renovated, and thus the quality of the entire tourist product will be. A complete renovation of the Yacht restaurant underneath the Park Plaza Histria Hotel is underway, in which public spaces and rooms are being renovated,'' the Arena Hospitality Group from Pula said.

This year, they will also invest 50 million kuna into the Medulin camp Kažela, with a total of 150 million kuna already invested in this area last year. This is the second phase of the investment which will turn it into a modern and high-quality four-star category camping facility.

This year's works include the further replacement of mobile homes and the installation of 45 new luxury camping homes. For owners of modern campers, luxury, spacious lots will be adapted to the best, "premium" positions by the sea. These are large parcels of land larger than 150 square metres, offering complete infrastructure - electricity, water and drainage. As part of the investment, all the sanitary facilities intended for guests of the camping pitches will be renovated, which will increase its competitiveness among other campsites, the company said.

In addition, the restaurant, bar and sports centre with the proper horticultural landscaping of public areas will be completely renovated. Throughout the camp, guests will have high-speed wireless Internet access and IPTV services (TV channels through new OTT technology) via smart TVs in camping homes.

It's worth noting that last year, the Arena Hospitality Group invested more than 250 million kuna in its tourism portfolio. With this year's investments, the Arena Hospitality Group will almost completely rebuild its facilities at Verudela and bring them up to an impressive four-star level.

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