The company Istraturist from Umag, the most northern Adriatic tourist centre, has begun with investments into the further raising of quality of tourist products and services. The
announced investments are worth about 12, 5 million Euros, of which the majority will be invested into the raising of the quality of camps.

Namely, during the last five years Istraturist has invested about 76 million Euros into the renovation of accommodation capacities and introduction of new content. This year it is the turn of auto-camps, into whose improvement will be invested about eight million Euros.

In this way the largest Istraturist camp Ladin gaj will become Camping park Umag with a four star rating, while the camps Finida, Stella Maris, Pineta and Kanegra will have three
star standards. All five camps together have a capacity of 9000 places which makes up nearly half the capacity of Istraturist.

Of the announced eight million Euros, about five and a half million will be invested into the Camping Park Umag in which, other than the overall raising of quality of the camp offer, a large amount will also be invested into landscaping the environment – the construction of a so called fun-educational park Istria which will on about 13.000 square metres, in the shape of map of Istria, present authentic Istrian sites and will be witness to the thousand year coexistence with nature. Namely, guests will be introduced to kažune (old Istrian stone houses), vineyards, olive groves, orchards, they will see the red and grey Istrian soil….and will be able to learn about the specific Mediterranean flora through educational courses.

There will also be investments into the remaining four camps in which, along with improving the conditions in the camp, special attention will also be given to horticultural landscaping and in increasing animation and children’s activities, because all camps of the Umag company operate under the motto Family friendly camps and are adapted to offer ideal family holidays.

As far as the technical part of the investment, it will also be necessary to carry out parcelisation because of new installation for mobile homes, installation of electricity, water, satellite and TV connections, raising the standards of sanitary facilities, fixing up the beach and construction of additional facilities like a belvedere and pirate ship.

Tourist board of the Istrian County
Pionirska 1a, 52440 Poreč
Tel.: + 385 52 452 797
Fax: + 385 52 452 786
Email: tzzi-po@pu.htnet.hr
Web address: http://www.istra.com/porec

Tourist board of the City of Umag
Trgovačka 6, 52 470 Umag
Tel: + 385 52 741 363
Fax: + 385 52 741 649
Email: tz-grada-umaga@pu.htnet.hr
Web address: http://www.istra.com/umag

http://www.croatia.hr

Coming up to the peak tourist season ahead of us the Umagbased Istraturist Company is making significant investments into its facilities. This time the company is building a new hotel in the existing Garden Istra tourist resort. The 22 million Euros investment will round off the complex and make Garden Istra a truly special tourist resort.

The renovation and creation of Garden Istra was launched in 2004 and should end in late June of this year when the opening of the new hotel is scheduled. The new hotel will have 300 rooms. Its construction will reflect a vision of the true Istrian ambient, which is in fact one of the basic goals of the Garden Istra investment.
The Garden Istra project is based on the concept of replacing the stereotype facilities reminiscent of 1970’s construction with modern but localized architectural solutions adapted to the region’s ambient. Creating facilities that will with their appearance, size and services reflect the culture and lifestyle of the region they are located in is a real challenge. Garden Istra will incorporate elements of typical Istrian architecture like church bell towers, stone houses, vaults, “baladura� (a local kind of veranda) right up
to elements of landscape and the horticulture of the Istrian countryside.
The best example of this will be Istra Village aqua centre spreading along the outer edge of the entire resort.

Work will also continue on improving the sports facilities on offer – tennis, squash, badminton, basketball and volleyball courts, bowling alleys and other sport facilities.

That these kinds of investments aimed at upgrading quality are more than useful is demonstrated by the example of the Istraturist camps Kanegra, Stellamaris and Finida. Thanks to orderly grounds and sanitary facilities they were this year granted the prestigious ADAC Yellow Plaque, while the Park Umag camp was given ADAC’s high environmental commendation, the CCU ECO Plus. All four camps now have high four-star ratings while the company’s fifth camp – Pineta in Savudrija, is awaiting recategorisation
so that by the next peak season all of the Istraturist camps will be four-star affairs.

Istra County Tourist Board
info@istra.hr
http://www.istra.hr

Istraturist Umag
http://www.istraturist.hr


(taken from Journalist Web Newsletter 03/2006 http://press.croatia.hr/datoteke/2455.pdf)