Meliá Hotels International and Banca March will invest nearly 20 million euros in repositioning the Meliá Fuerteventura hotel as a benchmark for quality and environmental and social sustainability
26 July 2024 Category: Agreements
- The transformation will have a positive impact on employment and the local economy, amplifying the redistribution of wealth generated by tourism.
- The proprietary Joint Venture, created in 2023 through a partnership between Banca March and Meliá, includes commitments for the repositioning of the affected assets, as a sign of its vocation to improve destinations.
This year, the iconic Meliá Fuerteventura hotel, located on the seafront of Sotavento Beach in Jandía Natural Park and complemented by the famed surf school René Egli by Meliá, will join the catalogue of hotels managed by Meliá that the Group has repositioned to adapt them to the demanding quality and sustainability standards now sought after by customers and communities in tourist destinations.
The repositioning of Meliá Fuerteventura is one of the projects included in the partnership entered into in 2023 by Meliá Hotels International and Banca March to undertake joint projects in the hotel sector, in which the bank's clients participate through a co-investment model.
The upgrading of the hotel, with an estimated investment of over 16 million euros in work and facilities alone (to which furniture and other equipment will be added) will be completed by mid-2025. Its main objectives will be to elevate the hotel's status, completely renovate its facilities to maximise its energy efficiency and reduce its greenhouse gas emissions, and redouble its commitment to the local community, creating more and better jobs, increasing purchases from local suppliers and promoting knowledge of the destination, as well as helping to preserve the island's ecosystem and biodiversity.
In this way, and in line with the initiatives carried out by Meliá in destinations such as Lanzarote, Gran Canaria and Tenerife, among others, the repositioning of Meliá Fuerteventura as a premium or luxury product will allow "quantity to be replaced by quality", targeting customer segments with greater added value and greater social and economic profitability for the destination. Conscious of the environmental sensitivity on an island declared a Biosphere Reserve due to its unique natural values, these actions will prioritise the prevention and mitigation of the effects of climate change, applying sustainable construction techniques and installing photovoltaic panels and state-of-the-art lighting, air conditioning and refrigeration equipment.
The hotel also reaffirms its commitment to the local community, committing to a greater generation and redistribution of wealth thanks to the increase in purchases from local suppliers of goods and services, which in 2023 amounted to almost 600 and recorded a turnover of 45 million – figures that will undoubtedly increase after the renovation. In addition, as in other reforms and renovations carried out in the archipelago, such as those of the Paradisus Gran Canaria and Paradisus Lanzarote, the construction will be carried out with the participation of local companies and will thus have a direct impact on the economy and local employment, with 150 direct jobs estimated for the remodelling process alone. Ownership estimates that, after the refurbishment, the repositioned hotel will offer around 100 new jobs due to the improvement in the product and the standard of service associated with the brand, as well as the new facilities, and also plans to triple the rooms intended to accommodate workers.
For Gabriel Escarrer, Chairman and CEO of Meliá Hotels International, "the commitment of our company and our partner Banca March to sustainable and quality tourism is exemplified in the Meliá Fuerteventura transformation and repositioning project, a destination hotel par excellence that is committed to environmental, economic and social sustainability in order to generate a positive impact on the environment, our employees and the local community."
For José Luis Acea, CEO of Banca March, "as an entity that has been linked to the tourism and hotel sector for decades, this project is in line with our commitment to a sustainable economic model and with a vision of specialising in family businesses, objectives that we share with our customers through our commitment to co-investment with a leading partner such as Meliá."
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