This is the final amount which RIU, the second chain in the country for turnover, will invest from now until May 2000 (when it opens its doors) in its largest establishment in Spain with regard to the number of rooms (639) and resources invested (10,000 million pesetas). 

This investment includes the purchase price of the plot, building work and installations, plus the décor and furnishings.  The company envisages that the setting in motion of the establishment will create 250 direct jobs. 

RIU has a long-standing commitment to Gran Canaria.  It built its first hotel on this island in 1985 and today it has 11 establishments with a total of 5,849 beds. 

The Club-Hotel product is a type of establishment which combines the traditional comfort of a hotel with the open spaces, sports facilities and entertainment services characteristic of a club. 

The Club-Hotel Gran Canaria will bear this name as a tribute to the island.  Its setting, on the seafront next to the Riu Palace Meloneras, opened in 1996, right at the southernmost end of the island, in a top quality resort, plus the large investment planned,  ensure the new establishment the necessary appeal to turn it into one of the chain�s star products for the coming millenium. 

Likewise, RIU Hotels is planning to build a second Club-Hotel in Playa de Amadores, in the Gran Canaria municipality of Mogán, which it is forecast will open in 2001. 

The chain has 9,500 employees and 34 of its 82 hotels are located in the Canary Islands, where it is the leader in accommodation supply with a total of 16,064 beds 

Club-Hotel Riu Gran Canaria will also be in the year 2000 the second largest hotel in the whole chain, only preceded by the Club-Hotel Riu Tequila, in Playa del Carmen (Mexico), currently being extended, which will then have 664 rooms, i.e., 25 more than the Canary  establishment. 

Today the chain has Club-Hotels in Mallorca (2), Formentera (1), Dominican Republic (1) and Mexico (1).  Apart from the two Canary Club-Hotels, RIU plans to open an eighth Club-Hotel in Santi Petri (Cádiz) in 2001.