Melia Hotels Announces Partnership with China’s Greenland Group

Melia Hotels International and the Greenland Group, one of the largest real estate groups in China, reached a strategic agreement to join forces to pursue their growth internationally, inside and outside China.

For Greenland Group, an immediate impact of the agreement will be the launch of its urban hotel brand in Europe, through the adaptation and rebranding of a Melia-operated hotel in the city of Frankfurt, Germany, which was chosen by the company’s because its strong business travel segment.

In 2010, Melia inaugurated its first hotel in Shanghai, the Gran Melia Shanghai, and is currently finalizing work on the construction of the Gran Melia Xian and Melia Chongqing. In the short term, this agreement will allow the company to open two new Melia hotels in Jinan, scheduled for 2013, and Tianjin, two fast-growing cities located along the corridor between Shanghai and Beijing.

In the medium term, the alliance foresees the evaluation of numerous hotel development projects for the most successful Melia brands, such as Innside and Melia in the city hotel business, and even Paradisus in the emerging resort hotel business in China.

The Greenland Group and Melia hotels international partnership also entails cooperation in the areas of training, global hotel distribution systems and procurement, as such complementing each other in the development and implementation of best practice management systems and responding to a mutual need to grow the international customer base and to improve the awareness of the hotel brands operated by both groups in the complex Chinese and European markets.

Greenland’s expertise in Chinese culinary and Chinese culture would benefit Melia to excel in providing services to the Chinese guests, currently the largest outbound market into Europe, as well as offering authentic Chinese dining experience to the local market.

In the short and medium term, Greenland Group will continue to grow its urban brand in Europe and China, and will work with Melia Hotels International in further development of hotels over the coming years. The Greenland Group is one of the first Chinese hotel groups to open a hotel with its own brand in Europe.

Source: Travel Pulse, http://www.travelpulse.com/melia-hotels-announces-partnership-with-chinas-greenland-group.html