The Spanish company wants to ensure its presence in the most important destinations in Albania and opens the door to further expansion, which would make the country one of Meliá’s strongholds in the Balkans and consolidate its leadership in the Mediterranean.
Among its projects, the future Gran Meliá Tirana stands out as a 5-star luxury hotel with 125 rooms that will open in 2025 as part of an iconic architecture project in the very heart of the city. Gran Meliá Tirana will be the flagship to consolidate the company’s recognition in Albania, which with the arrival of the brand’s first hotel will bring the best luxury experience to the country.
In the words of Gabriel Escarrer, Executive Vice President and CEO of Meliá Hotels International: “After seeing first-hand the enormous potential of this country, as well as the commitment of its public and private sectors to open the doors to international tourism, I am convinced that we are going to start a new success story in the Mediterranean and I am very grateful for the trust that our partners in the country have placed in our company to make this dream possible.”
In Dürres, the second largest city in Albania and whose beach is the most visited in the country, Meliá will open two hotels in 2023, the Meliá Dürres and the Sol Tropikal Dürres. The first will be an extraordinary five-star holiday resort on the Gjiri I Lalzit beach, with 455 rooms and 10 villas, as well as an extensive offer of complementary services. Together with the Meliá Dürres property, Concord Investment Group, Meliá Hotels International hopes to mark a before and after in the hotel offer in the area with this hotel, offering the quality and attributes of Meliá Hotels & Resorts, one of its best-known brands.
The second, 8 kilometres from the city centre, will be the result of the remodelling of the current Tropikal Resort, to which two new buildings will be added, forming a modern vacation complex on the beach with a total of 383 rooms, of which 180 will be available in 2023 and the rest will be progressively included. This property, owned by FT Management & Events, also hopes to become one of the best holiday options in Dürres, thanks to the Sol by Meliá brand.
On the Albanian Riviera, Meliá announced in 2021 the Hotel Altea Meliá Collection, in Palasa Beach, a luxury hotel with 142 rooms and suites, among which its spectacular villas stand out.
Meliá adds 1,600 rooms to its expansion project in Albania
Along with these projects, Meliá has just announced the signing of another three franchise hotels, making a total of 7 hotels and nearly 1,600 rooms.
The new firms include a hotel of the Sol by Meliá vacation brand in Golem, a coastal city very close to the capital, Tirana, which is currently one of the main vacation destinations in the country. The Sol Fafa Golem hotel will be an extensive avant-garde resort on the beach with 460 rooms. Oriented towards families, it will have a wide variety of services, including multiple restaurants and bars, swimming pools and children’s areas.
The second of the new projects signed is the future Eliza Hotel Affiliated by Meliá, a modern establishment with 46 rooms in Tirana, which is under construction and could open its doors at the end of this year, thus becoming the first opening of the company in Albania.
The latest hotel signed is the Hotel Tomorri Affiliated by Meliá, with 120 rooms. Located in Berat, in south-central Albania, this city has been a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 2008. The hotel is part of a complex, also consisting of a new casino, and is expected to open in 2024.
In 2021, the country received 5.6 million international tourists. The 400 kilometres of coastline in Albania bathed by the Adriatic and Ionian Seas contrast with the mountainous geography of a large part of the country, forming a landscape of wild nature that makes the country a very multifaceted destination, and complemented by a cultural legacy of immense value, where first the Greeks and Romans, and later the Byzantines, Ottomans and other Balkan peoples left their traces here, shaping a mosaic of cultures that can be enjoyed in the form of numerous archaeological sites and several World Heritage Sites.
