On January 1, 1967, Yugoslavia embraced the world. It was from this date that foreign visitors could enter the non-aligned socialist state without a visa. As tour companies, notably those in Britain, geared up to pack tens of thousands of whey-faced holidaymakers off to sun-kissed Adriatic beaches, hotels raced up at the speed of a Jat Airways (Jugoslovenski Aerotransport) Caravelle jet.
What proved to be remarkable was the sheer scale and architectural ambition of the country’s new hotel complexes, which were often little short of towns in their own right.
Among the most spectacular was the Haludovo Palace Hotel on the Adriatic island of Krk, a plaything for its first investor Bob Guccione, the Brooklyn-born publisher of Penthouse magazine.
Source: CNN
