Meliá Hotels International has signed three new properties in three different regions.
In the Indian Ocean, the Gran Meliá Maldives will be located in Kalhudiyafushi in Thaa, an atoll located 40 minutes from Male International Airport. The hotel is scheduled to launch in October 2017 and will be owned by Huravee International.
Meliá International will make its Kazakhstan debut with the Meliá Almaty. The 250-room hotel is expected to open in 2018 and will focus on group and business travel. (Almaty generates around 20 percent of Kazakhstan's GDP and is a major financial hub in Central Asia.) ASICO will own the hotel.
Three new destinations: Gran Meliá Huravee (Maldives ), Meliá Almaty (Kazakhtan, photo) and Meliá Serengeti https://t.co/Cz93IESdN4
And on the eastern coast of Africa, the Meliá Serengeti Lodge in Tanzania is scheduled to open in June 2017, and will be Meliá Hotels International first sustainable hotel—"a 100 percent environmentally friendly property," the company said.
It will be the first hotel designed to operate completely off the grid, and will only use fossil fuels for "emergency energy" situations. Photovoltaic panels will generate electricity and accumulators will store the electricity, and a biogas generation system will be fed by a wastewater treatment plant. Drinking water will be collected from rainwater (and made drinkable using environmentally friendly techniques and equipment). Fans will keep rooms cool (rather than air conditioners), and building materials will be selected based on the carbon footprint they generate. (For example, concrete with local pigments and wood flooring will be laid over floor tiles.) Albwardi Investments, with whom Meliá has already partnered in Dubai, will own the Tanzania property.
Meliá Hotels International currently operates two hotels in Dubai and Qatar, and has 10 additional hotels in the Middle East pipeline, all due to open between 2017 and 2020. The properties will be managed under the Meliá Hotels & Resorts, ME by Meliá, INNSIDE by Meliá and Gran Meliá brands. Notably, emerging markets make up 71 percent of the company's global pipeline.