Mumbai 24 October, 2016 : Meliá Hotels International ‘s Chairman and founder have just been presented with the “Hall of Fame Award” at the Hotel Investors Conference Europe (Hot.E) held in London, in front of some of the most important experts, Chairmen and CEO’s in the Hospitality Industry in Europe.

This new recognition of a lifetime of work and success of Gabriel Escarrer coincides with the 60th anniversary of the group founded by him in 1956, when he was only 21 years old, in Mallorca. Since then, as we all know, his tireless tenacity and strength, his values and his strategic vision of the tourism industry, have enabled him to build a leading international company with over 375 hotels and almost 100,000 rooms, located in 42 countries.

Throughout his passionate speech at the Awards ceremony, our Chairman shared some of the keys behind his success and his main lifelong learnings, and listed our industry’s main future challenges, emphasizing the importance of focusing on customers – being the service vocation an intrinsic value to our Company-and on investors, partners and distributors. In particular, he stressed the need for companies to reinvent themselves and modernize permanently their products, brands and processes, an attitude thanks to which, in his words, “Meliá has managed to stay ahead, even in the earliest times Recently, as one of the exponents of the digital transformation of the sector “.

Gabriel Escarrer, moved, thanked the award as “a recognition of all our employees and of my family, without whose support we would not be here,” and he “dedicated” the award to the thousands of workers in this industry, men and women of the world , who “work day after day with dedication and passion, to make the world a better place.”

His words, that according to the attendees “were directed straight from this industry’s giant’s heart,” obtained a long and excited applause from the audience, and the President of the Forum, James Burba, highlighted Gabriel Escarrer’s dedication and his profound contribution to the hotel industry during these six decades of history: “ his lifelong dedication to the hospitality industry -he said- embodies what this award is all about”.

We congratulate our Chairman once again, hoping that this recognition, (part of an endless list of acknowledgements such as the Honorary Doctorate at the Balearic Islands University, the British Travel Industry’s Hall of Fame, the International Hotel Investment Forum’s Hall of Fame, the Hall of Honor of the University of Houston, or the “Lifetime Achievement” Awards of the World Tourism Organization and the European Hospitality Awards) makes us feel even more proud to be part of the Meliá Hotels International family.