WORLD – Spanish-based hotel company, Meliá Hotels International, and real estate conglomerate, Greenland Group, have signed a strategic agreement to join forces to pursue their growth internationally, inside and outside China, respectively.
For Greenland Group, an immediate impact of the agreement will be the launch of its urban hotel brand in Europe, through the adaptation and re-branding of a Meliá operated hotel in the city of Frankfurt, Germany.
In the short and medium term, Greenland Group will continue to grow its urban brand in Europe and China, and will cooperate with Meliá Hotels International in further development of hotels over the coming years.
In 2010, Meliá inaugurated its first hotel in Shanghai, the Gran Meliá Shanghai, and is currently finalising work on the construction of the Gran Meliá Xian and Meliá Chongqing.
In the short term, this agreement will allow the company to open two new Meliá hotels in Jinan, scheduled for 2013, and Tianjin. In the medium term, the alliance foresees the evaluation of numerous hotel development projects for Meliá brands, such as Innside and Meliá in the city hotel business, and even Paradisus in the emerging resort hotel business in China.
The Greenland Group and Meliá Hotels International partnership also entails cooperation in the areas of training, global hotel distribution systems and procurement, as such complementing each other in the development and implementation of best practice management systems and responding to a mutual need to grow the international customer base and to improve the awareness of the hotel brands operated by both groups in the complex Chinese and European markets.
Greenland’s expertise in Chinese culinary and Chinese culture will benefit Meliá to excel in providing services to the Chinese guests, currently the largest outbound market into Europe, as well as offering authentic Chinese dining experience to the local market.
“In the new world tourism paradigm, China will soon become the largest market on the planet for both in and outbound travel,” says Vice Chairman and CEO of Meliá Hotels, Gabriel Escarrer. “The presence of the Meliá brands are therefore key to our success in the Asia Pacific region and for our business and resort hotels in the rest of the world.”
The Greenland Group is one of the first Chinese hotel groups to open a hotel with its own brand in Europe and projects to become a reference for European and Chinese business and leisure travellers in both continents.
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Melia Hotels and Chinese Greenland Group partner to develop presence in China and Europe
