Ljiljana Mikić is the general manager of the Arcotel Allegra Zagreb hotel, the first lifestyle hotel in Zagreb that has fully turned towards a healthy lifestyle since April, which they have supported in their operations so far. In collaboration with renowned healthy lifestyle promoter Marijo Valentić, the focus has been placed on a whole range of healthy amenities for guests, from specially designed exercises in the HealthyFIT center, to personalized treatments and massages, to various healthy menus for each season. The goal of this collaboration is the constant development of the hotel’s offerings towards health, which ultimately represents a further contribution to the topic of sustainability, which has been an important item in the way Arcotel operates for some time. We discussed this topic with Ljiljana Mikić.
A healthy lifestyle, a return to nature, the food our grandparents ate, regular exercise, and the attempt to find peace and tranquility in these highly stressful times are increasingly becoming a way of life, but also a guiding thread for numerous marketing campaigns that carry the attributes green or healthy. Was this also an idea springboard for forming the new business strategy of the Arcotel Allegra Zagreb hotel?
– The new business strategy of the Arcotel Allegra hotel actually represents an extension of the sustainability project that Arcotel Hotels launched in 2015 under the name “Small steps for big success.” The goal of this project, as its name suggests, is to implement many small gestures, small steps towards sustainability, to which we contribute daily to the great success – the global fight for environmental preservation. In implementing this, we are not only participating as employees, but we also invite our guests, partners, and competitors to do the same. Thus, at numerous locations in the hotel, you can find advice encouraging you to use a bicycle or public transport instead of a car, to try to use the stairs as much as possible instead of the elevator, and so on, all aimed at raising awareness of the importance of a healthy and sustainable lifestyle. One of the key emphases in the spirit of sustainability has also been placed on regionality in supplier selection, as using products from local producers of fruits, vegetables, meat, etc., also contributes to reducing CO2. Since last year, we have also been intensively working on the project “Give bees a chance,” under which Arcotel donates a certain amount of money to a bee protection organization for each room that a guest opts out of cleaning. In this initiative, around 4,900 hotel guests participated in the first year, and about 17 thousand euros were collected and handed over to the organization MUTTER ERDE (Mother Earth). It should also be noted that our hotel holds the “ZelEN – friend of nature” label, awarded by HEP, as a facility that uses electricity from renewable sources.
How important is this healthy concept to you personally? Do you manage to adhere to it in the stressful pace that, as a general manager of a city hotel, we assume you have daily?
An active and healthy lifestyle has been instilled in me by my parents from an early age. Actively engaging in exercise, which I have practiced since high school, still represents an important part of my life today, so I can say that it represents a form of “physical hygiene” for me and provides an excellent break from daily business stress. The healthy concept has somehow emerged through the prism of my personal lifestyle, and I develop it with even greater pleasure in collaboration with my employees and colleagues, who themselves increasingly recognize the benefits of its guidelines.
What is actually new in the operations of the Arcotel Allegra hotel? What are the innovations that include a turn towards a healthy life?
The beginnings of the Healthy concept were established back in early 2014 when we were thinking about how to make the seminar offerings different and more attractive, leading to the idea of the so-called Healthy Meeting. Thus, we replaced heavy snacks during coffee breaks with lighter and healthier options. We also introduced short stretching exercises during the breaks, which provided guests with an extra boost for a successful continuation of the day, and this is how our collaboration with renowned trainer Marijo Valentić began. As today’s trends are increasingly focused on healthy food and generally a healthy lifestyle, we decided to elevate our collaboration with Valentić to another level. Thus, at the beginning of this year, Mario also became our partner in the fitness area, allowing us to offer the services of the new HealthyFIT by Mario Valentić center to external guests, not just hotel guests. The collaboration continued in the direction of jointly shaping a healthy food and beverage offering or the so-called Healthy Fitness menu, which we regularly change, refine, and adapt to specific times of the year. The goal of this collaboration is the regular introduction of innovations related to a healthy lifestyle. Thus, it has been enriched with a healthy breakfast offering, the introduction of entirely new and even more creative healthy breaks during seminars, and weekend packages that include healthy food as well as morning exercises, hiking tours to Sljeme, and so on.
