Sol Melià to open 10.3m euro convention centre in Palma

Staff Reporter THE hotel chain Sol Melià will open its new convention centre in Palma next February. It is to be situated alongside the Hotel Meliá Victoria, on the Paseo Marítimo, reported the company yesterday. The centre will occupy a surface area of 1'300 square metres and have 10 meeting rooms and a large hall with capacity for 500 people. It is equipped with a “business centre”, its own kitchen and a parking area to accommodate 100 vehicles. The cost of completion will reach 10.3 million euros. The magnificant location on Palma's seafront close to other major hotels, provides an excellent pivotal point from which to conduct a new trend in attracting tourist business. Gabriel Escarrer, head of the hotel chain, explained that the purpose of the development is to enable the group to create new business opportunities for guaranteeing the viability of the tourist industry in the Balearics throughout the year. Sol Melià intend to promote “alternative tourism” by offering different ways of spending a holiday other than the traditional “sun, sea and sand” scenario. Options include sporting and cultural tourism, and above all, hosting congresses, conventions and developing business incentive travel. The organisation of such events requires not only first rate infrastructure but also the support and experience of a wide range of professionals. Sol Melià claims to have secured all these requirements to guarantee the success of any type of occasion. “Meeting Sol Melià” has as one of its principal objectives, the flexibility to meet the needs of an increasingly demanding client base. The company explained that, following the incorporation of Tryp Hotels into the group in 2000, Sol Meliá will become the first town-based hotel chain in Spain. Laying claim to a complement of 100 hotel establishments, the company will be able to boast at least one of their properties in each of the main towns of the country. Additionally, Escarrer announced that another large auditorium will be inaugurated next spring, also with capacity for 500 people. This second project will be situated alongside the hotel Meliá Castilla in Madrid, which currently already has 23 meeting rooms. These facilities complement those already available in capitals such as Barcelona, Seville, Valencia and Alicante. In the Balearics, the Sol Melià group alone provides an infrastucture of 17'000 hotel placements, of which 12'000 are on Majorca. This presence is an “important power” for the organisation of large national and international meetings. Sol Melià. founded in Palma in 1956, is the largest holiday chain in the world and undisputed market leader in Spain. It currently has 350 hotels spread over 30 countries on 4 continents, manned by 36'000 staff. Its products are commercialised under the patents Melià, Tryp, Sol, Paradisus and Hard Rock.