Meliá Hotels to open five-star property in Iran

Gran Meliá Ghoo will be located in a 130 metre-high tower in the largest mixed residential, commercial and hotel complex in Iran - currently being built in Salman Shahr on the Caspian Sea. The 319-room Gran Meliá Ghoo will provide all of the luxury services and facilities expected of a five-star hotel, according to Melia, with seven restaurants and bars, over 1,300 m² of meeting and banquet facilities, two swimming pools, a spa, and diverse leisure and shopping facilities. In addition to the hotel, the resort will also feature two residential towers, a sports centre, parking and a shopping centre – which is already open to the public. The European hotel group’s entry into Iran comes as the country expects to see significant tourism increase after the lifting of sanctions that have restricted foreign investment since 2006. Iran expects to attract more than 20 million passengers a year by 2025, compared to the current 5 million. "We have always been pioneers in the development of new markets in the travel and tourism industry, so it is a great challenge for us to be involved in a project, which is so important for the future of the industry in this country, in a historic moment for the international relations within the area,” said Gabriel Escarrer, Vice Chairman and CEO of Meliá Hotels International. “We firmly believe in Iran's tourism potential and I am also very proud to have earned the trust of our partners in the management of this hotel, a further demonstration that we are a significant international player for the most prestigious hotel projects anywhere in the world.”

The 319-room Gran Meliá Ghoo being built on the Caspian Sea AccorHotels became the first international hotel group to launch in Iran when it opened the Novotel IKIA and ibis IKIA in Tehran in October last year.

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