“The idea came about many years ago,” says Gabriel Escarrer at the presentation of Zel, the new hotel brand launched with Rafa Nadal. The presentation has generated great expectations on Thursday in Madrid. It is based on “the Mediterranean essence” adds Meliá‘s CEO on what will be the vacation and urban leisure establishments that will begin operating in Spain through Mallorca and will continue through Europe, the Middle East, Asia and the Americas.
Tennis player Rafa Nadal is “very excited“, he declared. “I’ve always had a lot of uncertainty in the hotel world” and as Mallorcans “we trust each other”, explains the sportsman. “It’s nice to work with family businesses,” said Escarrer
The first hotel will open in Mallorca in 2023. Until January, at the Fitur fair, Meliá will not announce which establishment on the island will launch this venture between the Escarrer and Nadal families. “That’s the million-dollar question,” joked Escarrer, who assures that “we are going to give our all” in this project. Over the next five years, more than 20 hotels will be added, says the tennis player. In addition to beach destinations, starting with the Balearic Islands, and also in major cities where Nadal has played tournaments, such as Madrid, Paris and London.
Rafa Nadal expects it to be “a hotel project “for life”. “We are both Mallorcans,” Escarrer emphasized, hence this joint venture is about “a commitment of both families,” in which the tennis player’s father and sister have been very involved for the past year, when they started to shape the project with a “Mediterranean essence”
Establishments on the rest of the islands
The call launched by the Mallorcan hotel company, under the title, “The day when Madrid’s skyline will be transformed into the Mediterranean sky”, in the Torres brother’s restaurant, Dos Cielos, located at the emblematic Palacio de los Duques de Gran Meliá, in the center of the Spanish capital, had erected great expectation, to the point that even among Meliá’s own staff, few knew what the announcement would consist of. The presence of Gabriel Escarrer and Rafa Nadal in Madrid has attracted international press, with the Parisian very interested in when a Zel hotel will be inaugurated in the capital of the Seine
Escarrer announced that the openings under the new Zel brand, which will be four-star superior hotels, will continue on Mallorca, Menorca, Ibiza and “hopefully on Formentera”. Likewise, Madrid will be an important place for Meliá and Nadal hotels, where the Mallorcan chain has 21 establishments.
“Tourism is a very important part of the present and also the future” because people travel more and more and appreciate living and experiences,” explains the tennis player, now transformed into a hotel businessman with this joint venture in which the two families of the island participate equally, according to Escarrer
The choice of the name comes from a nod to the word cel, Catalan for sky. Escarrer says it is a word that is understood in several languages.
Behind the architectural projects will be the studio of Álvaro Sanz who “will know how to capture the essence of the Mediterranean” and has already built more than two hundred hotels, adds the Mallorcan hotelier
Upcoming destinations
The first hotels to operate under the Zel brand will be owned by Meliá. They are going to be reconverted under the concept that, as explained by the tennis player, can be summarized as “the Mediterranean is a magical place”
80% of the hotels will be opened in holiday destinations and 20% in tourist capitals “with a lot of leisure activities and where Rafa Nadal has played tournaments,” says Meliá’s CEO
The entire Mediterranean basin, starting with the Balearic Islands, plus Greece, Italy, Portugal, Croatia, Montegro, the Hispanic and Anglo-Saxon Caribbean, as well as Southeast Asia, will be priority destinations to expand the Escarrer and Nadal hotels.
Both Rafa Nadal and Escarrer predict that other strategic partners will join them in their international expansion thanks to the power of the tennis player and the solvency of Meliá, in areas such as gastronomy, decoration and technology
RAFA NADAL: “MY SCHEDULE IS STILL COMPLICATED, MY RETIREMENT WILL BE AS LATE AS POSSIBLE””
Rafa Nadal jokes and says he is confident that he will be able to “spend vacations” in most of the hotels he is opening with the Escarrer family. “It’s true that my schedule is still complicated, but I’m not 20 years old and I’ll be able to dedicate myself to these things,” he adds about his facet as a hotel businessman that is now strengthened with this venture with Meliá. “My retirement will be as late as possible,” he warns.
Rafa Nadal has explained why they have chosen the name Zel for the hotel brand: “It is inspired by the Mediterranean sky, which is one of the most beautiful in the world”.
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