In 2015, Meliá Hotels International has successfully concluded a strategic cycle that began in 2012 in the midst of a crisis in the Eurozone, and has also marked the new strategic challenges through to 2018. Thus the Group is facing a new period with greater strength and a watchful attitude in a setting in which certain uncertainties persist.

We have taken advantage of these years to continue growing – above all on the international stage – and to consolidate the intense process of organizational, strategic and cultural transformation that we started in 2011, when we bid farewell to our beloved “Sol Meliá” and launched our new corporate brand, Meliá Hotels International.

Thanks to this strategic vision and stringent management, coupled with solid family-based values, we have successfully concluded a complex stage in which we have managed to achieve most of the targets proposed, and can face the future with solvency and optimism.

This fact is clearly shown and substantiated in our performance figures. We closed 2015 with a healthy balance sheet, a borrowing reduction of more than 200 million Euros and a plethora of major acknowledgements awarded this year worldwide.

Staying ahead after so many years is only possible thanks to an ongoing process of innovation and reinvention, in which our brands continue revolutionizing the urban hotel business with lifestyle concepts and transforming the holiday hotel segment with contemporary products that are adapted to the different profiles of our clients. In this regard, I should like to highlight the new concepts of the Sol Hotels & Resorts brand and our commitment to being at the cutting edge, which now also involves an in-depth digital transformation in our commercial model, which will generate competitive advantages.

The holiday hotel business is enjoying an upturn on the international stage, and Meliá boasts the leading mix of holiday hotels in the industry; our brands currently compete for management of the leading hotels of the world, under equal conditions as the major international chains. In Spain, a country that maintains its buoyant position as the third largest recipient of tourists worldwide, Meliá continues to be the leading hotel chain in terms of size and rooms, and I am enormously satisfied to report that, for the third consecutive year, we also continue to spearhead the sector in the issue of Corporate Reputation, according to the prestigious MERCO Empresas Index.

Our major strategic commitments are bearing fruit in abundance. Firstly, our strength and credibility as managers gives us the flexibility and competitive advantage that are essential in tackling our growth and expansion. Secondly, our growing global presence in 41 countries, backed by an international pool of talent and professionalism with more than 32,000 employees located outside Spain, as well as the excellence of our management systems, will enable us to respond to the more than 25 international inaugurations scheduled for 2016.

However, this satisfactory balance would not be complete if I failed to highlight the major headway achieved in issues of corporate responsibility, an aspect that has taken deep root in our strategy, enabling Meliá to maintain and strengthen an excellent reputation that has consolidated itself throughout our history. So, in 2015 we have continued to delve further into the commitment to the employability of young persons, recognized at the 12th UNWTO Awards Forum, celebrated as part of the Tourism Fair that takes place every year in Madrid, Spain. Meliá also collaborates with universities to ensure closer relations between the world of education and the world of business, to ensure the future employability of our young adults.

In harmony with its social positioning in favor of childhood, Meliá has consolidated its international partnership with UNICEF, signed in 2011, to guarantee the rights of children in those countries where we have a presence, with major projects in the Dominican Republic and Mexico, among others. Our commitment to childhood is now more valid and necessary than ever.

I am also proud to point out that our environmental commitment has been reflected in the prestigious CDP 2015 Index, in which Meliá has been included on the “A List” among the Top International Companies, with the highest level of commitment and performance in the fight against climate change.

In 2016 we are addressing new and major challenges, let there be no doubt about that, but we are also aware that we are tackling these challenges from a position that is more solid than ever.

Today, Meliá Hotels International is a young 60-year old company with a long track record which, in the same way as the founding family, has a long-term vocation and the ambition to continue contributing with our activity to breaking down barriers and fostering socio-economic development of the destinations where we operate.

Gabriel Escarrer Jaume
Vice-Chairman and CEO