Meliá Hotels International to open the spectacular Gran Meliá Nacional Rio before the 2016 Olympics

Meliá Hotels International today announced a major milestone in one of the most important destinations in the Americas: the reopening of the famous Hotel National designed by Oscar Niemeyer, one of the fathers of modern architecture. Built in 1972, the hotel has been closed for several decades, and has now been taken over by Meliá Hotels International with the challenge of returning it to its former glory with the exquisite product and service standards expected of the luxurious Gran Meliá hotel brand.

The hotel was a key location in the heyday of Rio de Janeiro, when it was the destination of artists such as Liza Minnelli, BB King, and James Brown, and also hosted the Rio Film Festival. Its magnificent facilities are now being renovated to accommodate 417 rooms from 33 to 300 m2, including 2 presidential suites and 50 executive suites, plus an avant-garde gastronomic restaurant and modern bars in the lobby and on the penthouse terrace, with spectacular 360 degree views of Rio de Janeiro and the San Conrado bay, close to Ipanema and Copacabana.

The hotel extends over an area of 125.000 m2, and its facilities, both outdoors and indoors, include a good amount of works of art, also belonging to the hotel, as well as an impressive 12.000m2 Convention and Events center with capacity for more than 4,000 delegates. Together with a location on the bay in the upscale neighborhood of Sao Conrado, and its proximity to the Rio airports, it is the perfect hotel for both business and leisure travelers to Rio, starting with the coming Olympic Games in Rio, where the Gran Meliá Nacional Rio will be an official venue.

The alliance between Meliá Hotels International with the HN Participaçoes e Emprendedimentos Ltds. Group, lead by Marcelo Gonçalves Limírio, after an investment of over €100m, ensures the viability and success of this major project, classified by the company as a urban resort, aimed to welcome both the International and the domestic tourism and created to become a new social epicenter for the city of Rio.

The Mayor of Rio, Eduardo Paes, said yesterday that he is confident that Meliá will help boost quality tourism in the city, and added that he was also proud that Rio de Janeiro will be able to see how the magnificent Nacional Hotel is reborn from its ashes in the run up to the Olympic Games.

Meliá Hotels International has been in Brazil for 23 years, and now operates 17 hotels and is developing another 3 hotels to be opened up to 2018. The Gran Meliá Nacional Rio will undoubtedly be the company's most luxurious hotel in a country in which Meliá has become one of the most admired and most reputable companies in the hotel industry. As explained by the Vice Chairman and CEO of Meliá Hotels International, Gabriel Escarrer, "The location and characteristics of the Nacional make it a dream for any hotel company, and we are confident that under our Gran Meliá brand, that combines the timeless luxury with the avant-garde, it will surpass the success and excellence that it enjoyed for decades."

Regarding the Company's commitment to Brazil, Escarrer is convinced that "the country's potential in the long term, after the short-term boost from the Olympics, guarantee the prominent role of Brazil, and in particular of Rio de Janeiro as a travel destination in the Americas, supporting the important move by Meliá to take its most universal and emblematic luxury brand to the carioca coast".