Introduction of Croatian Hotel Brand 'Valamar'

The management of the Valamar Company announced at today’s press-conference that two Croatian hotels, run by the tourist company 'Valmar hotels and resorts', Diamant hotel in Poreč and Lanterna hotel in Rabac, will be branded next year with the name Valamar. As the first hotels of the Group, they will be first two hotels carrying the Valamar brand.

According to Marija-Francesca Kovač marketing director of Valamar, these two four stars hotels, will be designated with the new brand by April 2006. The name of the Diamant hotel will be joined by the name Valamar, while the name of the Lanterna hotel will be changed into Valamar Sanfio.

Besides the changing the visual identity and the names, the brand stands for high quality of accommodation, service and facility - developed within the Valamar Company.

The reconstruction of the Diamant hotel (244 rooms) and all the preparations for the its branding, from 2002 until 2005, requested the investment of HRK 83.5 million while the complete reconstruction of the Lanterna hotel (138 rooms), in 1998/1999, was realized with the investment of HRK 4.3 million.

Kovač pointed out that for the season 2007 they were planning to brand several more hotels within the Valamar Group, and that the Valamar brand would be divided into three different sub brands - Basic, Grand and Club.

The Valamar Company was founded in 2001 within the Dom and SN Holding. The Company manages a total of 23 hotels in the areas of Istria and Dubrovnik, eight apartment dwellings and nine camping sites, i.e. a total of 40 objects along the Adriatic coast counting 39 000 beds and 9% of the total of Croatian accommodation capacities.

With this capacity it is possible to achieve 3.8 million night stays per year, providing jobs for 2 800 employees.

At the press – conference the Valamar Company presented also two awards which the hotels Neptun from Poreč and Pollux from Rabac received this year from the British tour-operator Thomson Holiday. The Neptun hotel was awarded for the fourth time in the category ‘small & friendly’ based on a survey amongst their (British) tourists and the Pollux hotel received for the first time the award ‘best sun summer accommodation’. (Hina)