The Rezidor Hotel Group has rebranded and reopened as the Park Inn Veliky Novgorod, the 225-room hotel formerly known as the Beresta Palace Hotel.

The move brings Park Inns' portfolio in Russia/CIS to 25 hotels in operation and under development. The Park Inn Veliky Novgorod - owned by Moscow-based Effective Investments - offers an all day restaurant and bar, three meeting rooms and a wellness area including a swimming pool, saunas and a gym. It was originally built in 1991 as one of the first international-standard hotels which opened after the fall of the Soviet Union and renovated in 2006.

Veliky Novgorod - which translates as "The Great New City" or "The Big New City" - is a major tourism destination both domestically and, increasingly, internationally and located along the main highway linking Moscow and St. Petersburg. It is a key stopover for tour groups taking the "Golden Ring" tour of the cities surrounding Moscow. It is also home to the Yaroslav the Wise University, an administrative centre for the Novgorod region and has a large industrial base focused around the chemical industry.

Effective Investments, founded in 2006, invests in - among other things - commercial and residential real estate and the hotel business. Its strategy of hospitality sector development includes the development of its own Onix Hotel chain and the opening of hotels under the management of international hotel operators. Over the next five years it is planning to open at least two hotels per year - both under own brand and under the management of international hotel brands - in cities in the European part of Russia with a population of over 450,000.