Sol Meliá will manage a five star Meliá hotel in Agrigento (Sicily) from 2011

Sol Meliá has reached an agreement with Italia Turismo to manage a five star hotel in Sciacca, Sicily from 2011 under the Meliá brand, incorporating all of the services and features of the Spanish hotel brand.

The hotel will provide 209 rooms and 246 apartments and will form part of a luxury resort development in the Sicilian region of Agrigento. The region will add to its appeal as a luxury travel destination with the addition another luxury resort and two golf courses (with the possibility of a third in the future) in addition to the Meliá hotel.

The hotel will lie alongside a 2-kilometre long beach and will provide three swimming pools, two restaurants, a lounge & grill bar, a convention centre and numerous sports facilities such as tennis basketball and volleyball courts and a football pitch.

In addition to the 209 guest rooms, the 246 apartments will also be sold as part of the normal hotel sales operation, although other forms of commercialising the apartments in the future are currently being analysed.

Another of the strong points of the new Meliá hotel in Sicily will be the hotel Spa, an area measuring 1,200 square metres devoted to the wellbeing of the body and soul and with access to an authentic thermal water source. The Spa will be operated under the Sol Meliá luxury Spa brand, Yhi Spa.

Guests staying at the hotel will enjoy the comfortable facilities and impeccable service offered by Meliá in all of its hotels, alongside the magnificent cultural and historical legacy in Sicily, the largest island in the Mediterranean.

This new project extends Sol Meliá’s operations in Italy where it already operates five hotel --Tryp Verona, Meliá Poltu Quatu (Sardinia), Meliá Roma Aurelia Antica, Meliá Milano and Meliá Olbia (Sardinia). In 2010 the company will also begin to operate the Gran Meliá Roma. The project also extends the company’s presence in Europe where it is already the fifth biggest hotel chain on the continent.

The presence of the Spanish hotel chain will also assist in the development of the Agrigento region as the agreement also includes technical assistance in the final definition of the development of the Sciacca resort with Italia Turismo, a company owned 51% by Invitalia (National Agency for the attraction of investment and business development) and 49% by Turismo & Immobiliare (a company jointly owned by three of Italy’s largest companies: Gabetti Property Solutions, Gruppo Marcegaglia and Pirelli Real Estate).