The Spanish hotel group Barceló, which recently announced an investment of 50 million euros in Madeira, admits new projects in that archipelago, but is now “focused on entering mainland Portugal,” namely Lisbon, Porto, and the Algarve.
In an interview with the Lusa news agency, the director of the Barceló Hotel Group for Madeira and Cape Verde, Julio Barrientos, said that the new projects “are still being studied”, but that “mainland Portugal is an important target. The group is focused on entering mainland Portugal, which is a priority objective, but we do not rule out further Madeiran projects.”
The Barceló hotel group’s goal is to complete their existing Funchal project and make it one of the best five-star hotels in Funchal. It’s scheduled to open in 2026 and be marketed under the Royal Hideaway brand.
The new four-star hotel next to the Farmers Market is scheduled to open at the end of 2025 and will be operated under the Occidental brand.
According to Julio Barrientos, this new hotel infrastructure will be built on land where a hotel was already planned, of which only the car park has been completed: “It is an unfinished hotel, only the car park has been completed, on which the hotel will be built, which will obviously favour the rehabilitation of the surroundings”, Explained.
Following the investment of 50 million euros in Madeira, the group – which in 2023 made a consolidated profit of 193.9 million euros and had a turnover of 6,700 million euros – expects to create more than 300 direct and indirect jobs on the island, where it will operate with four hotels and its four brands: Royal Hideaway Hotels & Resorts, Barceló Hotels & Resorts, Occidental Hotels & Resort, and Allegro Hotels.
The Barceló Hotel Group is the hotel division of the Barceló tourism group, founded in 1931 in Mallorca, Spain, and employing more than 38,000 employees.
Today, it claims a place among the 30 largest hotel chains in the world in terms of the number of rooms, with more than 300 hotels and 65,000 rooms in 30 countries, marketed under four brands: Royal Hideaway Hotels & Resorts, Barceló Hotels & Resorts, Occidental Hotels & Resorts, and Allegro Hotels.
Recently, the Barceló Hotel Group announced an investment of 50 million euros in Madeira, which includes the already inaugurated five-star Barceló Funchal Oldtown hotel (the result of the rehabilitation of six buildings in downtown Funchal), the purchase of land for the construction of a hotel in the area of the Farmers’ Market, in the historic centre of Funchal, and the acquisition and refurbishment of the former Quinta das Vistas Palace Gardens.
With the addition of these new accommodations, the Barceló Hotel Group strengthens its presence on the island of Madeira, where it already managed the Allegro Madeira Hotel, a four-star hotel located just a few minutes from the centre of Funchal.
Formerly known as Quinta das Vistas Palace Gardens, the now Quinta Funchal Palace Garden hotel will be in operation until the definitive rehabilitation project of the building is approved, then closing while it undergoes a complete renovation.
The group is also part of the Crestline Hotels & Resorts group, an independent hotel company with 130 properties in the U.S.
Samantha Gannon
info at madeira-weekly.com
