Sol Meliá Leads Spanish Pack into Mexican Tourism

With roughly 3,500 rooms scattered in eleven lodgings, Sol Meliá Co. continues to have a leading presence in Mexico´s vast travel market.

Penciled in as the best foreign hotel chain in congress and convention tourism, Sol Meliá has also jotted down the names of two of its facilities –the Gran Meliá Mexico Reforma and the Gran Meliá Cancun- on the list of the leading hotels of the world.

Other two resort chains, RIU Hotels and Occidental Hotels, are also doing their own in the immense Mexican travel market. RIU is right now running 2,800 rooms in the country, while Occidental owns 2,100 accommodations.

In keeping with official estimates, Mexico relies on nearly half a million hotel rooms scattered in 11,300 resorts, ninth in the world ranking.

The development of this huge infrastructure has required an investment of over $22.5 billion, with 80 percent of the money being shelled out by investors from the turf.

For the ongoing year, developers will be opening fourteen new lodging facilities for a grand total of $151 million in construction works.

Mexico welcomed 18 million foreign tourists in 2003 and chalked up nearly $9.5 billion in earnings, up 7 percent from the previous year.