TIME magazine is hailing Melia Hotels International as the most sustainable company in the tourism sector, designating the Spanish hotel group a number-one pick in the 'World's Most Sustainable Companies of 2024'.
The inaugural list includes 500 leading companies from more than 30 countries. Melia Hotels International obtained the highest score in the tourism sector worldwide and occupies 114th place in the global ranking among all industries. The hotel group has also positioned itself in eighth place among the 25 Spanish companies that appear in the ranking.
The TIME announcement comes at the same time that Melia secured its commitment to sustainability through Ecostars, an internationally recognised certification that evaluates and rewards sustainable practices in the hotel industry.
Twenty-seven hotels in Asia have already achieved ratings ranging from certified to Silver level. The highest-ranked hotels within the region are Melia Bali and Melia Purosani Yogyakarta, both in Indonesia. Melia Makassar and INNSiDE Yogyakarta, also in Indonesia, achieved a Bronze rating, along with Melia Vinpearl Hue and Melia Vinpearl Phu Ly in Vietnam and Melia Koh Samui in Thailand.
The globally-recognized Ecostars standard evaluates the sustainability of hotels, considering factors related to environmental management and energy efficiency, such as energy consumption, use of green energy, water management, waste management, carbon emissions and sustainable purchasing.
"Having an assessment as solid as Ecostars across our entire portfolio in ownership, rental and management, not only strengthens our reputation, but also directly enhances our business results, since, as a recent study conducted by Booking.com shows, a visible positioning in sustainability is valued by customers and translates into an increase in bookings," said Gabriel Escarrer, president and CEO of Melia Hotels International.
For Melia Hotels International, another strong point of the Ecostars certification is its global nature, as it is used and recognised all over the world. The portfolio assessed by Ecostars is distributed geographically as follows: 160 hotels in Europe, 60 in the Americas, 40 in Asia and 10 in Africa.
Earlier this year the group was recognized as one of the top-performing hotel companies globally according to the latest Sustainability Yearbook by S&P Global. The leading financial ratings and market analysis provider ranked Melia in third place and the first European-origin hotel company in the ranking. The Sustainability Yearbook 2024 was based on the 2023 Corporate Sustainability Assessment, an annual evaluation of companies' sustainability practices, which covers over 9,400 companies from around the world.