The CEO of the Melia group Gabriel Escarrer and Rafael Nadal, during a press conference in Madrid, December 15, 2022 (AFP / OSCAR DEL POZO)
Spanish tennis star Rafael Nadal announced on Thursday the creation of a chain of hotels with the Melia group, one of the giants in the sector, with the aim of opening around twenty establishments within five years.
This chain, called Zel and inspired by the “Mediterranean lifestyle”, will see the light of day in 2023 with a first hotel in Majorca, an island in the Spanish Balearic archipelago where the 36-year-old tennis player is from and where Melia was founded in 1956.
The record holder for the number of Grand Slam titles and the leading Spanish hotel group, which operates more than 400 establishments worldwide, jointly own this company but have not specified its shareholder structure.
“The objective is to have more than twenty hotels in the next five years”, located “a bit all over the world”, said Rafael Nadal during a press conference in Madrid, saying not to set ” limits” for the following.
According to Melia, this chain will target “destinations that attract leisure travelers with high purchasing power”, in particular the countries of the Mediterranean basin such as Spain, France, Italy or Croatia, but also the Caribbean, Southeast Asia and the Middle East.
However, it will also be present in the major tourist capitals, with openings already planned in London, Paris and Madrid.
These openings will be 80% initially through the rehabilitation of existing establishments, which “will undergo an in-depth transformation” to acquire the “Mediterranean spirit” of Zel, underlined during the press briefing Gabriel Escarrer, CEO of the group. Melia.
But the objective is to eventually have a majority of hotels specially built for Zel (“sky” in Majorcan, a variant of Catalan spoken in Majorca), said Mr. Escarrer, also from the Balearic Islands.
“What we want” is to highlight “Mediterranean culture”, in particular “well-being”, “gastronomy” and the sense of “party”, “very attractive” for customers, insisted the CEO of Melia.
Questioned by journalists, Rafael Nadal assured his side that this project did not mark the end of his sports career. “I’m absolutely not in that state of mind,” he said, saying he wanted to ensure that his retirement from sport comes “as late as possible”.
© 2022 AFP
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