Spain’s leading hotel groups have reported a banner year in 2024 with many boasting of record income as they announced the expansion of openings in the burgeoning luxury segment, launching in new territories and adding fresh brands.
According to Spanish press reports, the country’s 11 biggest chains are expected to post a historic high of 18 billion euros in income for last year, a 10 per cent rise over 2023, fueled by a record 94 million tourists, with overall visitor spending up 16 per cent to 126 billion euros.
In further good news for the industry, overnight stays increased by almost 5 per cent in 2024 compared to the previous year, for a record of close to 364 million, Spain’s National Statistics Institute reported.
Concerning room rates, ADR was up 13 per cent over last year to 121.50 euros, the institute said.
At news conferences and in press releases during the FITUR travel trade show in Madrid, Spanish hotel executives said the industry was well out of the catastrophic crash of the Covid years as business returned with a vengeance to pre-pandemic levels.
“We’ve seen spectacular growth in our RevPAR over the past several years and we expect 2025 to be a year of normalization,” Gabriel Escarrer, the CEO of Meliá Hotels International, the country’s largest chain with 362 hotels and some 94,000 rooms around the world, told reporters.
“Already we’re expecting a great first quarter of this year with our properties in the Caribbean, for example, benefitting from healthy numbers of North American guests while our MICE and corporate business bookings at our urban properties are up 14 per cent so far over the same period a year ago”, he added.
In the pipeline are more than 70 hotels signed or under construction and set to open over the next two years with 80 per cent in the premium or luxury categories among Meliá’s nine brands.
“These include four new hotels in the Dominican Republic, plus properties throughout Latin America including Mexico, Argentina, Costa Rica and Brazil,” Escarrer said.
Closer to home, the group will be adding four hotels in Spain, 18 hotels in Albania and seven new properties in Malta.
“In addition, we expect to announce soon the details of a very promising partnership agreement with a prominent business family in Turkey which is fast becoming one of the leading destinations in the Mediterranean,” the CEO said.
In his comments to the press on the Spanish hotel sector as a whole, Escarrer cautioned that the country needed to address the danger of “overtourism” manifested this past summer by residents of major destinations protesting the mass influx of visitors resulting in higher housing costs, increasing pollution and other issues.
“I don’t believe that 94 million visitors a year to Spain is sustainable for the tourism industry in the long run, especially when the majority arrive over a four or five-month period,” he said.
“What we need to do is set limits for certain areas in certain seasons and promote travel to our country from generating markets like the United States, the Middle East and Asia all year, not just in the summer.”
Acquisitions, Renovations and Repositioning
Grupo Barceló, Spain’s second-largest chain with more than 300 properties, plans this year to spend 400 million euros on acquisitions, renovations and repositioning its strategic assets, financial director Vicente Fenollar said in a press interview.
“We are going to prioritize properties which offer a solid return and which are in line with our vision of expansion and positioning in high-profit segments of the industry,” he added.
Barceló opened 20 hotels in 2024 and has another 22 in the pipeline with debuts scheduled over the next two years.
Palladium Hotel Group has earmarked 650 million euros to expand its nine mostly luxury brands within the next three years following a “spectacular” 2024 which saw the company enjoy income of 1.2 billion euros, an increase of 12 per cent compared to last year, President Abel Matutes said.
“Our RevPAR was up 10 per cent over 2023 and occupation rose 3 per cent, respectively,” the executive explained. “We have renovations planned at properties in Spain, Italy, Mexico, Brazil and the Dominican Republic and Jamaica where we’re also in the process of licensing two new resorts.”
Other new hotels slated to open over the next two years include a 162-key Only You in Venice in partnership with ECE Real Estate, another in New York City of 139 rooms with Spanish investor Rosp Corunna and a third with 156 rooms on the Spanish island of Ibiza.
“In Ibiza we’re also unveiling the first property of our new brand, The Unexpected, which will redefine the hotel experience with an emphasis on food and beverage, wellness and entertainment,” Matutes said.
“We’re planning on opening this summer and our second is to open in 2027 in Ras Al Khawah in the United Arab Emirates under the name The Unexpected Al Marjan Island Hotel & Residences.”
Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Vietnam, Indonesia and Thailand are also possible future destinations for the Palladium chain’s upscale and luxury brands, the executive said.
“We’re doing our homework and looking for the right opportunities in the Middle East and Southeast Asia.”
Income Growth
Luis Riu, CEO of family-owned Riu Hotels & Resorts, reported his company scored a healthy income boost of 13 per cent in 2024 to just over 4 billion euros thanks to solid demand from its generating markets, high room rates, and a robust occupation level of 89 per cent across its 98 properties in 21 countries.
“Also contributing to our success was slowing inflation and lower interest rates while we introduced new services, invested heavily in upgrading our properties and opening new ones such as our first hotel in Chicago,” the executive said in a company blog post.
“As well as in Chicago, we opened new resorts in Jamaica, the Dominican Republic and Mauritius and for this year we have planned five large renovations, a new hotel in Cancun, and we’re working on debuts in the next few years in Phuket in Thailand and the Balearic Island of Formentera,” he added.
Also in the pipeline are the Riu Palace Swahili in Zanzibar, the Riu Palace Toronto in Canada, and the company’s third property in Manhattan.
Sercotel, which focuses exclusively on Spain and Andorra with 75 properties, has ten more under construction slated for openings between now and the end of 2027, according to Chairman Jose Rodriguez.
“We had a very good 2024 with 33 per cent growth in income over the previous year to 150 million euros and this represents the third straight year of growth of more than 20 per cent,” he said.
A year ago, Rodriguez announced that Sercotel hoped to add seaside resorts to its existing portfolio of urban hotels but at a press conference he said it was not the best moment for such a venture.
“Right now, prices are at a peak and I don’t believe they are sustainable in this economic cycle so we’ve decided to wait and see,” he said.