Meliá Reports Full Year Results

Gabriel Escarrer Jaume, Executive Vice President and Chief Executive Officer

Gabriel Escarrer Jaume, Executive Vice President and Chief Executive Officer “2022 was an unusual year, in which the first quarter was strongly affected by the Omicron variant and was followed by a sudden “v-shaped" recovery in travel demand, allowing Meliá to achieve pre-pandemic revenue levels by the end of the year. The pent-up demand and desire to travel obviously favoured the evolution of the business, while a solid strategy allowed us to optimise our income statement and mitigate the impact of increased inflation. Our commitment to digitalisation has allowed us to consolidate our leadership in online distribution with a new, more personalised and experiential website and App, and also to improve the efficiency of our management in unison with a new, more agile and more efficient organisational structure.

Progress in our digital transformation combined with our strategy for our brands and the luxury travel segment, our leadership in resorts and urban leisure hotels, and our positioning as the Most Sustainable Hotel Company in the World according to Standard & Poor's Global, also allowed us to retain the confidence of hotel owners and investors from all over the world and keep up a strong rate of growth, with the addition of 33 new hotels and more than 8,200 rooms throughout the year, practically all of them under management and franchise agreements. This confidence was also reflected in 2022 in an increase in the stakes of two significant shareholders in the group: Hoteles Mallorquines Agrupados, SL, holding participated by the Escarrer family, which increased its stake in the company by 0.5%, and the Canadian fund Global Alpha, which increased its stake from 5.118% to 10.14%.

Bearing in mind the prudence that is still required due to current affairs, we are presenting these results with an optimism instilled by the buoyant travel market, reflected in bookings through our direct sales channels growing at high double-digit rates compared to the same period in 2019, and also a return to booking early rather than at the last minute. These trends are also confirmed by sales through a large number of our distribution partners, which are higher than in 2019 and with bookings also being made further in advance, with up to 45% of reservations being made for the summer. Thanks to our international diversification, Meliá will continue to benefit over the coming months from the gradual reactivation of international travel, consolidating its position as a key player in the sustainable recovery of many destinations. "...Link directly to source: Meliá Reports Full Year Results

The Team

at LEADING HOTELIERS NETWORK / JOB LEAD SERVICE