Gabriel Escarrer Juliá, who founded international hotel firm Meliá Hotels International, died at the age of 89 in his native Mallorca, Spain, on Nov. 26.
At the time of his death, he was the company’s honorary chairman, with the firm remaining in his family’s hands.
Born on Feb. 14, 1935, he is credited with being one of Europe’s most influential pioneers in tourism, hotel and destination creation.
A news release from the Palma, Mallorca-based firm said he had been a “key representative of the pioneering generation of tourism. Throughout his life, he has been a great example of passion, tenacity and entrepreneurial vision, since he founded the company we know today as Meliá Hotels International in Mallorca at the age of 21, which he would later promote throughout his life to the highest levels of the global hotel industry.”
He handed over the company to his son, Gabriel Escarrer Jaume, chair and CEO, in 2016.
The release added Escarrer Juliá was a “pioneer in opening destinations as important as the Mexican Caribbean, Bali and Cuba, [and] he anticipated the power of tourism to bring countries together and promote the social and economic development of destinations.”
In 1956, he took his first step in the hotel industry by leasing the now defunct Altair Hotel in Palma, according to the Mallorca newspaper Majorca Daily Bulletin.
He then founded a firm named Hoteles Mallorquines to add hotels, initially in the Balearic Islands and mainland Spain. After acquiring the Hotasa hotel brand in 1984, he renamed his business Hoteles Sol.
In 1987, that company merged with Meliá to become Sol Meliá, which nine years later became publicly listed, the first European hotel company to do so.
The current name of the firm, Meliá Hotels International, was adopted in 2011.
Meliá has 374 hotels and 93,267 rooms in operation in 40 countries, and it currently has 10 brands — Gran Meliá Hotels & Resorts, ME by Meliá, soft brand The Meliá Collection, Paradisus by Meliá, Meliá Hotels & Resorts, Zel, Innside by Meliá, Falcon’s Resorts by Meliá, Sol by Meliá and Affiliated by Meliá.
The company currently owns 13.1% of its portfolio — 12,192 rooms.
Its latest hotel to open in Europe was on Nov. 1, the 140-room ME Malta in the town of St. Julian’s on the country’s main island, Malta. The hotel is Meliá’s second collaboration with Zaha Hadid Architects, following the 2020 opening of the 93-room ME Dubai.
It has a pipeline of 71 hotels and 12,883 rooms.
The firm’s focus on resorts has not wavered.
In a 2018 HNN interview, Escarrer Jaume said “there is an absolute need for brands, but you have to segment. Our brands only range from midscale to luxury, and our focus is on critical mass and synergies. There is no budget brand, no commodity product. For us, it’s easier to sell experience, and to keep guests at one of our resorts all the week. I need to innovate.”