Melia Hotels International : Meliá Hotels International announces hotel openings and growth priorities for 2017 at FITUR

The Vice Chairman and CEO of Meliá Hotels International, Gabriel Escarrer, presented today at FITUR the expansion strategy for the hotel company for 2017, a year in which it will keep up the intense pace of new hotel agreements and openings seen in recent years. Meliá has added 20 to 30 new hotel agreements annually over the last few years (an average of around one every two to three weeks) resulting in an increasing number of hotel openings. In 2016, the company opened 19 new hotels in 10 different countries.

In 2017, the company plans to open at least 23 new hotels in different cities and destinations around the world:

EUROPA (5 hotels): The Company is aiming to strengthen its presence in major cities and popular urban travel destinations with hotels focused on bleisure travel (business + leisure).

• Innside Hamburg Hogerdamm (Germany)
• Meliá Palma Bay (Mallorca, Spain)
• ME Sitges (Barcelona, Spain)
• Tryp Santa Ponça (Mallorca, Spain)
• Tryp Caparica (Portugal)

LATIN AMERICA AND CARIBBEAN (6 hotels): growth in both Latin American and English-speaking Caribbean resorts will be seen in 2017, especially in Mexico, while also focusing on openings in 'bleisure' destinations in Brazil and other countries. Openings in 2017 include:

• Gran Meliá Nacional Rio de Janeiro, (Brazil) about to be officially inaugurated and to revolutionize the luxury hotel industry in Brazil under the Gran Meliá brand.
• Paradisus Los Cabos in Mexico, after the transformation and re-branding of the former Meliá Cabo Real, will open in 2017 as a spectacular all-inclusive luxury product.
• Meliá Cartagena de Indias (Colombia), located in a privileged part of the Caribbean coast, ten minutes from the historical centre of this World Heritage city and a magnificent golf course designed by Jack Nicklaus.
• ME Caracas (Venezuela)
• Meliá Costa Hollywood (USA)
• Innside Bogotá (Colombia)

MIDDLE EAST (3 hotels): in this region, Meliá is positioning itself in the bleisure segment with its Meliá Hotels and Innside by Meliá brands and the luxury Gran Meliá and ME by Meliá brands:

• Innside Doha (Qatar)
• Gran Meliá Huravee (Maldives)
• ME Dubai (UAE) posthumous work by the great architect Zaha Hadid, in a spectacular building operated under the luxury lifestyle ME by Meliá brand which will open in December.

AFRICA (3 hotels), where the company is focusing on leading safe destinations in the resort segment, such as northern Morocco, Cape Verde and Tanzania, which will all see openings in 2017:

• Meliá Serengeti Lodge (Tanzania)
• Meliá Saidia Garden All inclusive (Morocco)
• Meliá Saidia Beach All Inclusive Golf Resort (Morocco)

ASIA-PACIFIC (6 hotels), with continued strong organic growth and consolidation of brands such as Gran Meliá, Meliá or Sol Hotels as priorities:

• Meliá Shanghai Hongqiao.
• Meliá Pekanbaru (Indonesia)
• Innside Yogyakarta (Indonesia)
• Innside Zhengzhou (China)
• Sol House Bali Legian (Indonesia)
• Meliá Bandung (Indonesia)

Escarrer also used the annual international tourism event to announce the signing of two new Innside by Meliá hotels to open in 2019 in two major European capital cities. The Innside Paris-Charles de Gaulle will be a four-star hotel with 267 rooms in terminal 3 at the main Paris airport, offering fitness, conference and meeting facilities, and enhancing the hotel supply in the business district of Roissypole.

The project is the result of an agreement between the French ADP Group, manager of the three Paris airports and commercial and real estate divisions, acting as investor and promoter, with the French real estate giant Vinci Immobilier, responsible for hotel construction and with which Meliá already works at the Meliá Paris La Defense hotel. Meliá will operate the hotel under its successful Innside by Meliá brand, designed for contemporary urban travellers, which has become the fastest growing brand for the company worldwide thanks to its excellence and functionality.

The other hotel announced is the Innside Amsterdam, the company's first hotel in the Netherlands, which will provide 328 rooms with magnificent views and an exceptional location and access to the city, the airport and central train station, in the largest financial district in the country and only 10 minutes from the historical city centre. All of this combined with the new Innside attributes such as creative meeting space and the e-gym on the 18th floor make this hotel ideal for both business and leisure travellers (bleisure).