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Post by gmh on Mar 17, 2011 13:52:52 GMT 1
I've only been past it 3-4 times and never stopped to investigate. I found the pics googling. Looks like it would be a great hotel for mountain walking nature lovers, maybe even hanggliders and paragliders.
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Post by mambo on Mar 17, 2011 19:42:47 GMT 1
The hotel is called 'Hotel Kalic' Pictures can be seen here: www.panoramio.com/photo/26848978The hotels/bars/restaurants South of Senj all have gone bankrupt since the highway Zagreb-Split opened up. In the old days everyone had to drive along the coastal road and Rijeke - Zadar would take roughly 5 hours, so there was a need for hotels and restaurants. Nowadays nobody drives there anymore, unless you are on your way to Pag - Rab or just driving the scenic road to Zadar. With no guests and not a lot of motorists stopping for even a coffee it was no longer possible to keep all these places open. I doubt whether it will ever change. So the local people now use the beaches during weekends, but during the week you won't find a lot of people either. I have slept on the beach at night time when I was driving back from Pag. Was nice and quiet, perfect sleeping.
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Post by Carol on Mar 17, 2011 20:54:07 GMT 1
but mambo, doesn't that just make the place better for a different kind of tourism - not the overnighter but people who would go there as a quiet, beautiful destination? Not that i know anything about tourism or being a hotelier
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Post by mambo on Mar 17, 2011 21:56:53 GMT 1
Carol,
In perhaps 20 or 30 years this region will be to the point that tourists will want to go there again. Main problem is that there are very few tourists in this region and the tourists you can find in Senj are not the ones who will appreciate that type of tourism.
If you want to run a hotel you will need a certain amount of guests to make it financially viable. Normally hotels are aiming for 65 - 70 % occupancy rates (in a year), but in Istria they are already down to 55 %. The reasons for low occupancy rates are many, but you can think of: 1. High prices (prices are amongst the highest in Europe) 2. Low level of service (no training, no motivation, no quality of personnel etc) 3. Bad infrastructure. (almost unreachable by air, road and no local transportation system, poor quality of roads etc) 4. No ideas of the concept of tourism (what type of tourism to offer at certain locations) 5. No understanding of the tourist market (who are the tourists and what are they looking for or better......which tourists are they looking for) 6. No government tourism plan (developing areas as a whole and not just 7. No regional development plans (integrating hotels/bars/restaurants/entertainment/museum etc) 8. Bad weather (last 8 years too much rain and once it rains there is absolutely nothing to do) 9. Extremely short season (in many places seasons are last week June - 2nd week August) 10. Various other reasons (quality of food, medical services, car rental etc)
It is obvious that these problems won't be solved any time soon, in fact they have only gone backwards the last couple of years. We can safely say that in the times of Tito tourism was more developed than nowadays.
This hotel Kalic could be a very nice hotel and in any other country it would be a super place to go to, but with the Croatian ability to make absolutely nothing out of a perfect situation it is better to stay far away from investing in hotels along the coastal road..........unless you have a few millions to spare.
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Post by MartinM on Mar 17, 2011 22:23:47 GMT 1
Senj, Senjska draga and Vratnik are hell during the 'bura'
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Post by mickanddeb09 on Mar 18, 2011 13:28:11 GMT 1
Mambo, I don't think Kalic Hotel is the Motel Vratnik that i'm talking about. Yes they look very similar and seem to be in the same area, but, no, after checking the photo's, they are two different buildings. I took this photo... Attachments:
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Post by mambo on Mar 18, 2011 20:09:24 GMT 1
You are probably right. When I look at the hotels yr hotel is a bit up the hill and hotel Kalic in almost right on the waterfront.
But then again, I guess it is the same story, 2 hotels, both bankrupt and no chance of ever becoming successful unless many changes are made. Pity
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Post by Madgolfer on Mar 19, 2011 8:34:23 GMT 1
Is this just another case of "people" not understanding about marketing? Empty hotels such as this in a tourist based economy is really sad. So many people just assume that if they spend the money (eg build a hotel) then tourists will come. LOL With a decent marketing campaign and a clear business plan then perhaps this hotel could be successful? There are so many opportunities here and so little skill/experience to make it happen.
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Post by crojoe on Mar 19, 2011 9:09:36 GMT 1
Is this just another case of "people" not understanding about marketing? Empty hotels such as this in a tourist based economy is really sad. So many people just assume that if they spend the money (eg build a hotel) then tourists will come. LOL With a decent marketing campaign and a clear business plan then perhaps this hotel could be successful? There are so many opportunities here and so little skill/experience to make it happen. It's quite difficult in Croatia to "plan ahead", since so many things are decided on at the "last minute" by clients. I have this happen to me all the time, waiting and waiting for a decision from a client, then at the last hour boom... or I get calls from potential clients that require my company scramble to submit an offer in 1 or 2 hours. I see a lot of poor advertising, late release of information or no information at all. It's quite amazing how little the internet is used in Croatia for advertising, plus a lack of good communication. The ones that try seem like overkill, but I applaud them for their efforts.
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Post by Madgolfer on Mar 19, 2011 9:18:21 GMT 1
Ive just spent a 30 minutes searching for;
Bird watching, hiking, climbing, nature, rural, mountain biking etc etc etc.
There is plenty of info about the subjects and hardly any adverts for spet hotels, BandB, guest houses campsites etc.
I rest my case.
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Post by siriwan on Mar 19, 2011 9:31:02 GMT 1
Ive just spent a 30 minutes searching for; Bird watching, hiking, climbing, nature, rural, mountain biking etc etc etc. There is plenty of info about the subjects and hardly any adverts for spet hotels, BandB, guest houses campsites etc. I rest my case. Absolutely - there are plenty of things to be done, yet it is hard to find the info (I mean, ok, I know where to look etc. and I speak the language - but what when you're a tourist and you're here for 10 days??) The vet came to draw blood from my horses. Told us there are exactly 11 horses in the whole "opcina". This is less than 15 km from Plitvice... Yet when I first met a woman who had 20 horses (sad story of a bad divorce, and she's the bad one in it lol), all she could say was "ooooh, competition!!!" Right, with 4 horses, I'm such huge competition... She had gold in her hands with a beautiful place, a very strong position to drive groups to Plitvice, etc. All going down the drain coz she has no clue about marketing or using resources around here. I have offered many people to translate their info (rooms, restaurants..) into French, even for free. They're not moving an inch, while we all know the French hate it when nobody speaks their language. It's probably easier to sit and wait for the tourist to be so happy he found your place, he'll spend all his cash on you?? I need to transfer my workshop to another place "soon", as it's getting too small etc. According to the mayor, I can wait for their "business zone" to be ready (they got big EU money for that). Yeah right. Almost 2 years ago they started digging and flattening the land where it will be. Since then, nothing, zilch. And I'm supposed to wait for "that" :-)) In another two years???
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Post by Madgolfer on Mar 19, 2011 9:37:06 GMT 1
Siriwan, I know exactly what you mean. ;D
For those of us blessed with even a little bit of business sense can make hay while the sun shines. ;D
Competition is a good thing for business not bad and most western business minds understand that.
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Post by mambo on Mar 19, 2011 10:34:15 GMT 1
@ Madgolfer,
In this case I think it is the new high way which drove all these bars, hotels, restaurant and supermarkets into bankruptcy. The area was never very developed to begin with, so not a lot to do for tourists, but during the times that you had to use the coastal road to get from Rijeka to Zadar the coastal road was extremely busy. With the trucks on the road the speed rarely came above 40 km/u, so it would take forever to get to Zadar.
Nowadays, it is only busy on the stretch Rijeka - Senj, because there is still no highway leading directly from Rijeka to Zadar. People have to use the coastal road until Senj, then climb the mountain and join the highway. So as soon as you pass Senj the road is more or less empty. Only some trucks and destination traffic for Pag and Rab can be found, but otherwise there are perhaps 10 cars per day, even during the high season.
The moment the highway to Dubrovnik opens up it will most likely become less, everybody will want to drive to Dubrovnik.
In other words, if you want to draw tourists to this hotel you will be spending a fortune on marketing, but that still does not solve the problem that the hotel is almost unreachable. Tourists who want to come by plane must rent a car and drive for 2 hours from Rijeka, 2,5 hours from Zagreb or almost 3 hours from Zadar. And once they have done that they arrived in the middle of nowhere ! Other than the hotel there is absolutely nothing to do. On top of that, the small beach is really crowded with locals, so not exactly perfect if you spent a day trying to get there.
I don't know in what state this hotel is (technical), but I would think of a 'formula 1 type' hotel, in other words little to no service, no overhead cost and a low price. If they would be able to make a truck parking somewhere it could become succesful. But sometimes you must also conclude that it is no longer viable to make a location successful. Not all locations can be successful just because there is a hotel.
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Post by Madgolfer on Mar 19, 2011 12:35:05 GMT 1
Hi Mambo,
I rely on your knowledge of the area as I have never been there so really know nothing.
My point was more towards the point that a destination specific hotel (in the middle of nowhere) could be used to attract those who want that type of tourism; eg nature, away from coast etc.
With the Internet these days marketing can be done very easily and at minimal cost and can be aimed at very specific, targeted demographics etc.
Rural/green/eco tourism is not my field of expertise by any means, but from what I have seen the market is not being exploited to any great degree in Croatia as yet.
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Post by MartinM on Mar 19, 2011 13:22:29 GMT 1
I believe all heavy haulage vehicles have been banned from driving up Senjska Draga towards Vratnik and the highway through to Lika due to a tanker which lost control and spilt its toxic load down the valley - we drove past there the day it happened
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