ナダルがホテルブランド新設、地元マヨルカ島など全世界で開業へ

【マドリードＡＦＰ＝時事】男子テニスのラファエル・ナダル（スペイン）は１５日、母国の大手ホテルチェーン「メリア・ホテルズ・インターナショナル」と提携して、新しいブランド「Ｚｅｌ」を立ち上げ、世界に約２０軒のホテルを開業する計画であると発表した。（写真は、発表会見に臨むラファエル・ナダル〈右〉とメリア・ホテルズ・インターナショナルのガブリエル・エスカレール最高経営責任者）
　「地中海のライフスタイル」からインスパイアされたという「Ｚｅｌ」は、３６歳のナダルの生まれ故郷で、１９５６年にメリア社が創設されたマヨルカ島に、１軒目のホテルを２０２３年にオープンする予定となっている。さらにマドリードに加え、英ロンドンや仏パリなどの主要観光都市でも、開業計画があることが明らかにされた。
　「Ｚｅｌ」はマヨルカ島で話されているカタルーニャ語で「空」を意味し、ナダルが全世界で４００件以上の施設を運営するメリア社と共同で所有する。株式の具体的な割り当てについては、公表されなかった。
　メリア社の最高経営責任者であるガブリエル・エスカレール氏によると、ホテルの８０パーセントは既存の建物で整備される予定で、ブランドの「地中海風」に合わせた「抜本的な改修が施される」という。【翻訳編集ＡＦＰＢＢＮｅｗｓ】
〔ＡＦＰ＝時事〕（2022/12/16-18:08）

Spanish tennis star Rafael Nadal on Thursday announced the launch of a new hotel brand with Spain's Melia group that is planning to open some 20 hotels across the globe in the next five years.
Inspired by the Mediterranean lifestyle, the new Zel chain is expected to open its first hotel in 2023 in Mallorca in the Balearic Islands where 36-year-old Nadal was born and where Melia Hotels International was founded in 1956.
Nadal, one of the world's two top-ranked tennis players, and Melia, Spain's leading hotel group which operates more than 400 establishments across the globe, will jointly own the company.
They did not specify who would hold what percentage of the shares.
The aim is that over the next five years, the chain will open more than 20 hotels across the world, Nadal told reporters in Madrid.
Melia said the new chain would establish hotels in destinations with a clear focus on premium leisure tourism, such as Spain, France, Italy or Croatia but also the Caribbean, southeast Asia and the Middle East
It would also be present in the main tourist capitals with openings already planned in London, Paris and Madrid.
Initially, 80 percent of the hotels will be set up in existing structures which will undergo a radical transformation to adapt them to Zel's Mediterranean character, said Melia chairman Gabriel Escarrer.
The ultimate objective is that most hotels will be specially built for Zel, which means sky in the dialect of Catalan that is spoken in Mallorca, said Escarrer, who is also from the Balearic Islands.
The idea, he said, was to put the emphasis on Mediterranean culture with its good life, gastronomy and parties -- an idea which customers found very appealing.
Nadal said his involvement in the hotel chain did not mean he was ending his sporting career.
I'm trying to make sure that my retirement is put off for as long as possible, he told reporters.