Fattal Hotel Group Bolsters Presence in Greek Tourism Market

The NYX Esperia Palace Hotel Athens on Stadiou Street.

Fattal Hotel Group, Israel’s largest hotel organization, has already invested some 80 million euros in hotel projects in Greece, according to Roni Aloni, the managing director of its brand Leonardo Hotels & Resorts Mediterranean.

Speaking in Athens on Wednesday, Aloni said investments include the complete revamp of the former Esperia Palace Hotel in Athens – which amounted to 25 million euros – and for projects in Thessaloniki, Rhodes and Nafplio.

Fattal Hotel Group began its investment activity in Greece five years ago when it won the bid for a long-term lease of the historic Esperia Palace Hotel – today’s NYX Esperia Palace Hotel Athens, member of the NYX brand under the Leonardo Hotels & Resorts chain.

Leonardo Hotels & Resorts Mediterranean Managing Director Roni Aloni.

Open since July 2023, the new 10-storey NYX Esperia Palace has 212 rooms and suites, a gym, a spa, conference rooms, two restaurants, a bistrot and two pools, one indoor and one outdoor with stunning views of the Acropolis, Lycabettus Hill and the city of Athens.

Prior to Greece, Fattal had entered the hospitality market of Cyprus in 2017.

“The investment plan of the company is to establish our brand not only in Cyprus but also in Greece and especially the Greek islands,” Aloni said during a press conference held at the NYX Esperia Palace Hotel Athens.

Rhodes

In 2019 when Fattal won the bid for the long-term lease of Esperia Palace, it also decided to introduce the Leonardo hotel chain on the island of Rhodes. The group that year purchased a property on the island, in the Kolymbia area, and after a major renovation opened the 5-star family hotel Leonardo Kolymbia Resort. The company this winter is planning to carry out further renovations to the property.

The Leonardo Kolymbia Resort on Rhodes.

Thessaloniki

During the press conference, Aloni also announced the opening of a hotel in Thessaloniki in a building Fattal purchased from an auction in 2019.

“Within the next days we will start the conversion of our building into 135 specially designed rooms under the NYX brand,” he said.

Located at 1 Tsimiski Street, next to Thessaloniki’s vibrant entertainment hub Ladadika, the NYX-branded hotel is expected to open its doors in October 2024.

Nafplio

Another one of Fattal’s investment moves in Greece is the acquisition of the Kandia Castle Hotel in Nafplio, a coastal city located in the Peloponnese, following an auction in 2022.

“We took over a beautiful hotel in the area of Kandia, in Nafplio,” Aloni said, informing that the 100-room hotel this winter will see extensive renovations and additions in order to transform into a 5-star luxury hotel under the company’s Limited-Edition by Leonardo brand.

The Kandia Castle hotel in Nafplio.

Looking ahead, the managing director of Leonardo Hotels & Resorts Mediterranean said Fattal is planning further moves in the Greek market.

According to Aloni, the company is currently in negotiations and is “carefully” examining various projects, considered to have great potential in the tourism sector, throughout Greece.

“Indeed, we are aiming to have more hotels in Athens,” he said.

Fattal right now owns and manages 13 hotels in Cyprus and in Greece. With the completion of existing projects, the company will have more than 2,000 rooms in Cyprus and around 1,500 rooms in Greece.

Fattal Hotel Group is seeing great growth in Cyprus with its investments on the island amounting to some 350 million euros.

“I would like to assure you that our investments plans will continue in both countries, since we are evaluating all the opportunities coming to us,” Aloni said.

Part of Fattal Hotel Group, Leonardo Hotels & Resorts Mediterranean counts more than 270 hotels in 117 destinations in Europe and Israel. The brand portfolio includes: Leonardo Hotels, Leonardo Royal Hotels, Leonardo Boutique Hotels, NYX Hotels by Leonardo Hotels, Leonardo Limited Edition, Jurys Inn, Herods, U Hotels, 7 Minds, Rooms by Fattal, Fattal Terminal, Master Collection and Switch up.

Israel’s largest hospitality organization and one of the fastest-growing hotel groups across the UK and Europe, the Fattal Hotel Group was founded by David Fattal in 1998.