BC-SOL-MELIA-MEXICO – Sol Melia SA, one of the largest hoteliers in the Caribbean, is keeping five Mexican properties with almost 2,000 rooms closed longer than planned to repair damage caused by Hurricane Wilma.
The company has shut three five-star hotels in Cancun and two resorts on the island of Cozumel until as late as June, according to Palma de Majorca, Spain-based Sol Melia’s Web site.
The hotelier said in November it planned to open the properties, which have 1,844 rooms, by Jan. 10.
The five hotels, which account for more than half of Sol Melia’s 3,500 Mexican hotel rooms, have been closed since November.
Concern about travel safety after more than 20 tropical storms last year is leading some tourists to travel to destinations such as Spain for their beach holidays, Exceltur, a Spanish tourism trade group, has said.
“We expected these hotels to be open at some stage in the first quarter,” wrote Eduardo Coelho, an analyst at Banco BPI SA in Lisbon who’s revising his rating on the stock. He estimates the company gets 23 percent of its revenue from Latin America.
The Melia Turquesa, which has more than 400 rooms, is closed until June 30, while the 800-room Gran Melia Cancun is shut until March 31. Sol Melia will open two other Mexican hotels with a total of more than 600 rooms on Jan. 14. The company didn’t give a date for reopening the Sol Cabanas del Caribe.
The stock rose 12 cents, or 1.1 percent, to 11.20 euros at 10:08 a.m. in Madrid. It gained 47 percent in 2005, beating the 10 percent climb by the Bloomberg Europe Lodging Index.
Sol Melia said in November it expected that insurers probably would cover the damage to its hotels. The company also said it has no plans to cut jobs at those resorts, which employ almost 1,700 people.
No one at Sol Melia was immediately available to comment today.
To contact the reporter on this story: Thomas Mulier in Madrid at (34) (91) 700 9606 or tmulier@bloomberg.net.
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Kimberly Kirner at (44) (20) 7073 3061 or kkirner@bloomberg.net.
