• Reservations maintained their positive trend, without any signs of a slowdown
  • Positive prospects for Q4, with an extended holiday season in the main destinations and a strong boost of the urban segment ahead of the Conference season
  • The strength of the Melia.com direct channel was a key driver of sales and helped maximise customer loyalty
  • The coasts of Mainland Spain and the Balearic Islands yielded the best performance, especially thanks to the British and Spanish markets. Combining all destinations, the Company outperformed the already positive figures of Q3 2022
  • EBITDAR margin rose by 171 basis point in the year to September with respect to the same period in 2022
  • With 18 hotel sign-ups to date, the Company expects to have signed up at least 30 new hotels by the end of 2023
  • The Group retained and widened its “Top Employer" certification, which recognises it as one of the best companies to work for in the main countries where it operates​
  • Meliá celebrates the strong recovery seen in segments such as Tour Operators and Travel Agencies–key allies of the Group across all markets​

Quarter's highlights:

Business performance

  • Revenue evolution in Q3: +6.9% vs 2022
  • RevPAR showed significant progress in the year to September (+19.5% vs 2022), with an especially solid performance in Spain, EMEA and APAC
  • Melia.com channelled more than 46% of all centralised sales
  • The Corporate and MICE segments confirmed their recovery, with an accumulated sales growth of more than 40% up on the first 9 months of 2022
  • A steady decline in booking cancellation rates was also confirmed
  • All of the above, together with improved efficiency procedures, helped increase EBITDAR margin by +171 bp
  • The Villa Le Blanc Gran Meliá Hotel (Menorca) was recognised as one of the best luxury hotels in the country

Financial management

  • Liquidity was €358.2M
  • Post-IFRS net debt was reduced by €33.2M during the 3rd quarter

Strategy and growth

  • Meliá signed up 18 hotels until September for a total of 3,500 rooms, and expects to add at least 12 further hotels by year-end, for an expected total over 7,000 rooms (under management and franchising models)
  • 8 new hotels with 1,514 rooms were opened in 2023 to date, run under management or franchise contracts
  • 26 new openings are scheduled until the end of 2024, with a main focus on Mexico, the Mediterranean Basin, and European capitals

Outlook

  • Daily reservations continue to show good progress, without any signs of a slowdown, and there is a +22,5% increase in reservations on the books to year-end as compared to the same dates in 2022
  • The Company expects a positive Q4, including the impact of an extended holiday season and the recovery in the MICE and Corporate segments
  • The Company expects a positive winter season (November to April) in the Canary Islands and Cape Verde (+26,5% above the same season in 2022) , as well as a boost in the US and Canadian markets for Caribbean hotels
  • After recovering much of the domestic demand volume, international tourism is expected to continue recovering in APAC, following an improvement in connectivity and more flexible entrance requirements​

The third quarter confirmed a solid recovery in tourism for Spanish holiday and urban destinations, as well as for the main European “bleisure" urban destinations, with average rates continuing to grow at around a mid-single digit and somewhat better occupancy figures, even though there is still a promising room for improvement to this respect, especially in European cities. All of this led to a global improvement of 19.5% in RevPAR during the year to date. Another positive development was the recovered strength of Asian domestic demand, both in the holiday and in the business segments, in addition to a more gradual return of international travellers to that continent.

Together with the solid results obtained, the trend recorded between July and September left us a few essential clues to understand the evolution of the business, such as an improved market confidence, which translated into a rise in advance sales and a steady decline in booking cancellation rates, accompanied by a surge in last-minute sales, or the return of a healthy mix of nationalities among our customers, with a noteworthy increase in the US market towards European cities and Spanish holiday destinations. We are also happy to confirm that 2023 is shaping up as the year of the recovery for the Corporate and MICE (Meetings, Incentives, Conferences, and Exhibitions) segments, with turnover figures already above those recorded before the pandemic and an excellent outlook for 2024, and also the consolidation of our digitalisation efforts as a competitive advantage, with our Melia.com channel already accounting for more than 46% of all centralised sales of the Group.

To summarise, I would say that, despite a macroeconomic context which is still causing some uncertainty, our Company maintains a positive outlook, with a level of reservations on the books above those recorded in the same dates of the previous year, and improvement prospects in such important destinations for the months to come as are Mexico, Dominican Republic, Canary Islands and Cape Verde, together with the major European cities and Asian destinations. Gabriel Escarrer Jaume, Executive Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Meliá Hotels International

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About Melia Hotels International

Founded in 1956 in Palma de Mallorca (Spain), Meliá Hotels International has more than 400 hotels open or in the process of opening in more than 40 countries, and a portfolio of nine brands: Gran Meliá Hotels & Resorts, ME by Meliá, The Meliá Collection, Paradisus by Meliá, Meliá Hotels & Resorts, ZEL, INNSiDE by Meliá, Sol by Meliá and Affiliated by Meliá. The Company is one of the world's leading hotel chains in the leisure segment and its experience in this area has allowed it to consolidate itself in the growing market of urban hotels inspired by leisure. Its commitment to responsible tourism has led it to be recognised as the most sustainable European hotel company according to S&P Global's Sustainability Yearbook 2024, as well as being a "Top Employer 2024" brand in Spain, the Dominican Republic, Mexico, Italy, Germany, France and Vietnam. Meliá Hotels International is also part of the IBEX 35. For more information, please visit www.meliahotelsinternational.com

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