The experience of Meliá Hotels International in China:
A case of internationalisation of a Spanish hotel group

Angels Niñerola^1* , Fernando Campa-Planas² , Ana-Beatriz Hernández-Lara³
and Maria-Victòria Sánchez-Rebull⁴

Received: 24/06/2015 Accepted: 30/09/2015

¹Universitat Rovira i Virgili, Department of Business Management, Av. Universitat 1, E-43204-Reus, Spain.Phone: +34 977759865, E-mail: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
²Universitat Rovira i Virgili, Department of Business Management,Av. Universitat 1, E-43204-Reus, Spain. Phone: +34 977758930, E-mail: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
³Universitat Rovira i Virgili, Department of Business Management,Av. Universitat 1, E-43204-Reus, Spain.Phone: +34 977759876, E-mail: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
⁴Universitat Rovira i Virgili, Department of Business Management,Av. Universitat 1, E-43204-Reus, Spain. Phone: +34 977759876, E-mail: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

The aim of this work is to identify the key success factors of a Spanish investment in a country with such profound cultural differences, as it is China, through the experience of Meliá Hotels International Group, one of the biggest hotel chains in the Spanish and international tourism sector. Two interviews were held with the group’s Vice-president of Development. The first was after the opening of the group’s first hotel in China in 2012, and the second two years later, because of the changes that the group had experienced in China. As a result, nine success factors and three entry barriers were identified.

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Keywords: Tourism sector; Foreign direct investment; Internationalisation process; Key success factors; Chinese market; Case study.
Citation: Niñerola, A., F. Campa-Planas, A. Hernández-Lara and M. Sánchez-Rebull (2016) The  experience of Meliá Hotels International in China: A case of internationalisation of a Spanish hotel group. European Journal of Tourism Research 12, pp. 191-196