World Luxury Hotel Awards 2022: The Esplanade Celebration
Ivica Max Krizmanić, General Manager of the Esplanade Hotel, Zagreb, is the winner of the most prestigious award from the world of hotel industry, the World Luxury Hotel Awards 2022 . He won the trophy for the best General Manager in the area of Southern Europe. The gala awards ceremony was held in the Swandor Topkapi Palace in Antalya, Turkey, and gathered more than 300 guests, hoteliers and media from all over the world.
This outstanding award is the crown of career for the manager, which this year marks 30 years of work in the best hotel in Zagreb and 10 years in the top position. Krizmanić dedicated the award "to his colleagues who are the crucial links for the overall functioning and successful business of the Esplanade Hotel", both of whose restaurants, Zinfandel’s and Le Bistro, are highly rated in the gastronomic guide of Gault &Millau Croatia.
In addition to the position of General Director of the Esplanade Hotel, Ivica Max Krizmanić holds other important positions: he is a member of the Council of the Tourist Board of the City of Zagreb as well as the Assembly of the Croatian Tourist Association, he is an honorary member of FIET a (Croatian Association of Tourist Journalists and Writers in Tourism), he is a member of SKAL, as well as the international gastronomic society Chaîne des Rôtisseurs, is also a member of the organizing committee of AmCham Talents and a mentor to the future professionals. In addition, he is an Ambassador of Knowledge at the Life Learning Academy and a prominent member of the prestigious European Association of Hotel Managers EHMA for many years. His contribution is best reflected in the successful operation of the Esplanade Hotel under his management with the director's baton, year after year, he records constant growth and increase in income and continuously successfully maintains the image of the hotel as an institution of hospitality and hotel industry. With his charm and cheerful spirit, he won over the hotel staff, as well as numerous famous guests and clients. He had the opportunity to host the world's greatest citizens and members of royal families, from King Charles, King and Queen of Sweden, Danish Queen and Prince, Japanese Prince and Princess, French President Emmanuel Macron, Hillary Clinton, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, Angela Merkel and others, all the way to people from the world of showbiz like Shakira, U2, Sting, Depeche Mode, Ennio Morricone, Robbie Williams, David Beckham ...
Ivica Krizmanić first set foot in the Esplanade as a three - year -old. Later, quite by chance, he continued the tradition of his father Ivan, from whom he also inherited the nickname Max, and stayed at the hotel for the next 30 years. A mechanical technician by profession, he was education in hotel management at the management schools of the Rezidor hotel group, as well as at Cornell University, Ithaca NY, in the USA. After numerous high positions in the hotel, 10 years ago he took over the management of the Esplanade. Even when he is not in the hotel, he lives with the hotel 24 hours a day.
