Meliá Hotels International to manage 5 new Innside hotels in Venezuela, the first the Innside Punto Fijo in 2016

• The hotel company extends its partnerships with regional partners and investors through management contracts, thanks to its strong brands and excellence in hotel management, sales and marketing.
• Innside hotels have seen rapid growth in both traditional and emerging markets thanks to their adaptation to the growing demand for practical city hotels for discerning and sophisticated travelers.

Meliá Hotels International announces a new major step in Latin America after the signature of a new framework agreement for the development and operation of 5 Innside by Meliá hotels in Venezuela, a country in which Meliá has significant brand recognition thanks to 15 years of successful management of the Gran Meliá Caracas Hotel, as well as other management projects under development.

Together with the developer and investor Franco Biocchi Zurita (with whom Meliá is also preparing the opening of the future Meliá Puerto Ordaz in 2016), the leading Spanish hotel company will thus continue to drive growth of the Innside brand through formulas which require low investment. Meliá manages hotels under the dynamic, urban Innside by Meliá brand in 16 hotels already open or in opening process in Germany, 5 in Chile, 3 more in Madrid, 3 in Indonesia, 2 in Brazil, and one each in New York, Milan, and Manchester.

The agreement is a boost to the strategic objectives of both companies. For Meliá it provides an excellent introduction for the brand in a market with high potential, while also requiring little investment thanks to being based on a hotel management agreement. For the developer it means their properties will be supported by the strength of the powerful and internationally recognized Innside brand and the management expertise that only the successful 60-year track record of Meliá Hotels International can provide.

The first of these hotels will be the Innside Punto Fijo Hotel in the state of Falcón, scheduled to open in 2016, which will provide 116 rooms on 12 floors, a restaurant, bar and gym, and rooms for meetings and events. It will be located alongside a modern office building and commercial premises. As highlighted by the Vice President and CEO of Meliá Hotels International, Gabriel Escarrer, "this framework agreement is a major landmark in the consolidation of the Innside brand as a market leader for urban hotels in cities with strong growth and development potential in Latin America, while also strengthening our strategic alliance with Franco Biocchi to develop extraordinary and successful hotel projects in Venezuela. "

Franco Biocchi Zurita, confirmed his trust in Meliá Hotels International, stating that "Meliá is an excellent option for investors given its very strong values, solvency, management excellence, and ability to maximize service quality and the customer experience while also optimizing the return on our investment. Innside hotels are undoubtedly the finest example of the modern, sophisticated and profitable type of hotel we wish to own."