Hotusa Invests €30 Million in Museum-Hotel in Lisbon

18 March 2018

The Spanish hospitality group Hotusa has officially inaugurated its third hotel in Lisbon. Located on Cais de Santarém Street, on the riverfront, the five-star Eurostars Museum is a museum-hotel that was built on the grounds of the former Coculim Palace, which was purchased by the group in 2005. It took an investment of approximately 30 million euros to open the hotel, which takes great care in preserving the history of the building and the city.

The inaugural ceremony of the Eurostars Museum took place last Friday, the 16th, and was attended by several Portuguese and Spanish government officials, including the Ministers of Economy and Foreign Affairs, Manuel Caldeira Cabral and Augusto Santos Silva, Alberto Núñez Feijóo, the president of the Galician junta, the president of the Congress of Deputies of Spain, Ana Pastor Julián, and the mayor of Lisbon, Fernando Medina.

Speaking at the inaugural ceremony, Amancio Lopez Seijas, the president of the Hotusa Group, mentioned the difficulties they faced when building the hotel, which includes a museum that portrays the different eras in the history of Portugal. “Opening a hotel is always a magical moment because it means that an ideal has become an idea, an idea has become a project, a project becomes a reality, a reality which we are inaugurating today. In the case of this hotel, the moment is even more gratifying, because when we bought the building in 2005, we knew that we would face many problems, but we also knew that it would be worth it.”

The president of the Congress of Deputies of Spain, Ana Pastor Julián, referred to Amancio Lopez as “a Galician and a person who did a lot to demonstrate that entrepreneurs, when they do things well, can give opportunities to a great many people.” The president of the Congress of Deputies of Spain recalled that the Spanish government had awarded Amancio Seijas Lopez with the Medal of Merit for Tourism for leading a “company that has been a key player in the internationalisation of the Spanish economy, is present in more than 100 countries, and is a reference for its ethics and capable corporate financing.”

The mayor of Lisbon, Fernando Medina, began by praising the project, saying that it is “a unique hotel that shows the essence of our hopes for the city and what is being built in it. We were honoured this year with the Best World Destination award for City Breaks, and it is precisely unique projects like this that will help us maintain the title and the award.

Medina complimented all those who, like Hotusa, opted to invest in Lisbon and Portugal during the crisis years. “In 2005, the country and the city were in a completely different situation. In 2008, we entered a profound crisis, and I understand very well the effort that was made to bring this project to its fortuitous conclusion. But as the saying goes, fortune favours the bold, and the people who invested in those difficult times are reaping their just rewards at this time of heady growth.” The mayor also added that the rehabilitation works on the riverfront (Terreiro do Paço, Cais do Sodré, Ribeira das Naus and Campo das Cebolas) are also a species of reward for those who invested in the area. “It is a reward that the city is presenting to those who are investing and believing in our city of Lisbon.”

Economy Minister Manuel Caldeira Cabral highlighted “the persistence, resilience and determination” of the group that “went ahead with a project that was difficult, but ultimately, more than worth it.” The minister praised the restoration of the building into a hotel and museum, in a “riverfront and in a city that are both in the process of recovering.” Caldeira Cabral also praised the joint effort that local and private entities are making to boost the tourism industry, which resulted in Portugal being elected as the Best Destination in the World this year.

At the end of the ceremony, the Portuguese and Spanish politicians symbolically received the keys to the new hotel.

The new Eurostars Museum has 91 rooms and ten suites, meeting rooms, an indoor pool, gym, an a la carte restaurant and bar-cafeteria. The museum can be visited every Sunday from 12 p.m. to 5 p.m., though only by making a prior reservation. Each ticket costs five euros.

New openings

After the opening of the Eurostars Museum, Hotusa will inaugurate five more hotels in Lisbon. The company owns two of the hotels, located in the Parque das Nações, which are under construction and scheduled to open in early 2019. In total, the two units will have 440 rooms. Two other hotels are being leased: a three-star hotel with 140 rooms on the Av. Duque de Loulé and a four-star hotel in Defensor de Chaves, which will have 70 rooms. The fifth unit is a 58-room boutique hotel, located on the Rua da Prata, where Olga Roriz’s company previously operated. Works should start in short order.

In Porto, the Spanish group will open a five-star hotel in the former AXA building on Av. Dos Aliados, a tourist-apartment building on Rua Sampaio Bruno and a four-star hotel in Matosinhos later this year.

In total, Hotusa plans to invest 150 million euros in Portugal.

Original Story: Publituris – Carina Monteiro

Translation: Richard Turner