The Hilton hotel cluster is set to open its seventh hotel in Croatia and its first on an island, specifically in Preko on Ugljan. As explained by Josipa Jutt Ferlan, the director of the Hilton hotel cluster in Croatia, a total of 15 million euros has been invested in the Hotel Preko Ugljan Island, the construction of which began in February 2024, with 40 percent of the funds co-financed by the NPOO. The hotel is expected to open at the end of May, and reservations for 65 hotel rooms are already open.
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—The hotel will also feature the Terra restaurant, a sunbathing area, a pool, wellness and spa zone, and multifunctional meeting and celebration halls. Additionally, corporate guests will have the option to rent the entire hotel for teambuilding and other activities to ensure complete privacy, as Hilton has noted an increasing number of such inquiries in recent years.
Jutt Ferlan highlighted that the new hotel will employ 30 staff members, 27 of whom are from the island of Ugljan and the nearby Pašman, and it is planned for the hotel to be open year-round.
Regarding the operations of Hilton hotels in Zagreb – Canopy, Hilton Garden Inn, and Double Tree Hilton – as much as 85 percent of guests come from foreign countries, with 9.2 percent of guests being Americans, followed by Germans and Britons. Jutt Ferlan stated that they currently do not see a decrease in demand and reservations from the American market due to the introduction of tariffs.
However, the occupancy of Zagreb hotels is significantly influenced by concerts and major sporting events in the city, including the announced concert of Marko Perković Thompson, which also affects the entire industry, from agencies, transporters, public services to caterers. A particular increase in demand was noted during the Rally event. Hilton expects that the occupancy of their hotels in 2025 will be slightly higher than last year.
