In line with travel industry trends and forecasts, the company aims to grow in two significant regions: Asia and USA.
   
Sol Meliá, the leading hotel company in Spain, unveiled its priorities for 2011 at FITUR today including its international strategy and focus on growth objectives in the world's two major superpowers, China and USA.

The hotel company will align its growth to industry forecasts for the upcoming years in which emerging powers are expected to boom as both outbound and inbound travel markets, but will also continue to grow in its traditional markets in Europe and the Caribbean as they maintain growth in visitor numbers.

Gabriel Escarrer, Sol Meliá CEO, also took stock of the company performance over the past three years, highlighting the achievement of growth objectives with the addition of 78 hotels (1,000 more rooms than initially forecasted, despite the crisis, and focused on low investment formulas such as lease, management and franchise agreements), the strong company balance sheet thanks to efficient crisis management, and also a more responsible approach to business and leadership in sustainable tourism.

With regard to new products, the company presented its most recent openings such as the Meliá Atlanta (first hotel in USA and open since October, 2010), Gran Meliá Daios Cove (Crete, Greece) and Meliá Sharm (Egypt), as well as new hotels for 2011 and 2012 including Meliá Dubai (first Spanish hotel in the United Arab Emirates), Innside Barcelona (first hotel for the German-based hotel brand in Spain) and ME London, the Spanish company's latest jewel in the crown located in central London and scheduled to open in 2012.

Sol Meliá continues to focus on leisure and dining innovation to compliment to its hotel business and also used the press conference to present a new agreement with Cappuccino, the prestigious Majorcan restaurant group, to open an elegant new cafeteria at the Gran Meliá Don Pepe in Malaga. After the presentation, Javier de las Muelas, the internationally famous cocktail man and architect of the new Dry Cosmopolitan Bar at the Gran Meliá Fénix, demonstrated the art of cocktail making.

Sol Meliá Vacation Club, a growing business

At the FITUR press conference the company also presented the results of one of its strategic businesses, Sol Meliá Vacation Club (SMVC), the only Spanish-owned vacation club in one of the fastest growing businesses in the travel industry, already well established in the USA and now becoming increasingly popular in Europe. Denis Ebrill, Managing Director of SMVC, presented the key features of a business which has now been operating for 7 years and has over 25,000 members.