On 1st September 2009, at the invitation of his colleague Ivo Dujmić, the Mayor of Zagreb Milan Bandić visited Opatija. The two mayors met at the city hall where they discussed the cooperation between their cities, especially in the field of culture and tourism, as a part of the Friendship agreement signed this year in April. Cooperation between tourist boards will improve common tourist offer with a possibility to combine conference and hotel capacities, airports, day trips and satellite conferences.

The meeting also confirmed that experts from Zagreb Holding’s Zrinjevac subsidiary would soon visit Opatija and present some of the possibilities of landscape architecture.

After the meeting mayors Bandić and Dujmić toured the exhibition at the Juraj Šporer art pavilion hosting the works of Džamonja and Murtić. Prior to the exhibition they visited a statue of Miroslav Krleža, a gift by the City of Zagreb to Opatija, located at the promenade next to Milenij Hotel. It was a return gift to Opatija for donating a bust of the legendary singer Ivo Robić on the occasion of an exhibition dedicated to him.