34. Gabriel Escarrer jaume, Vice Chairman and CEO, Meliá Hotels International
Meliá has not added any new properties to its existing MENA portfolio, but its CEO Gabriel Escarrer Jaume sees the company having weathered a financial crisis
This year, family-owned Meliá hotels and Resorts entered its 60th year of operation and the group also was among the first five-star luxury operators to announce development in Iran (along with AccorHotels).
In the Middle East, the Spanish hotel operator continues to operate two properties — the Meliá Dubai and Meliá Doha, and has a pipeline of five hotels. Meliá’s new hotels are set to be located in UAE, Qatar and Iran.
Responsible for a remarkable 42,275 employees Gabriel Escarrer says: “Meliá is now stronger than ever, with a new strategy based on an asset-lighter, more management-oriented model, more power to our brands, and a comprehensive digital transformation, involving the human team, the technology, and the customer relationship management.”
Escarrer Jaume is particularly pleased with how the operator has responded to the financial crisis and believes the company has come out of it stronger than before. He says: “As the second generation of the founder’s family, I have the mission to transform the group according to the current industry’s challenges and environment in order to keep its leadership. Therefore, in 2015, Meliá launched a strong digital transformation process called “MeliaDigital”; within this programme, we are making progress in our systems, our organisation, technology, and our sales, resulting in a 27% annual growth of our sales website over the past three years.”
By the numbers
8 Number of years in role
22 Number of years with company
2 Number of Middle East operating hotels
5 Number of Middle East pipeline hotels
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