History and Expansion
Paul Dubrule and Gerard Pelisson founded Mercure in 1967. The first Mercure hotel was established in 1973 in Saint-Witz, France. Mercure Novotel was taken over in 1975 by Société d'Investissement et d'Exploitation, later the Accor Group.
In 1983, Mercure expanded into Germany. In 1993, Accor acquired a stake in the Hungarian Pannonia hotel chain with 24 hotels. The group also expanded into Poland, Asia, Turkey, and Africa. In 1994, hotels opened in the Caribbean, Guyana and Réunion. In 1995, Mercure established themselves in Spain, Sweden, Egypt, Oman, and Dubai, and opened a hotel in São Paulo, Brazil. In 1996, hotels opened in Berlin, Barcelona, Offenburg, Weimar, San Sebastián, Bari, Israel, Croatia, and Malta. In 1997, hotels opened in Estonia, Togo, Madagascar, Colombia, Egypt, Morocco, and Lebanon. In France, Accor acquired 33 Frantour hotels and rebranded them. The group also expanded the brand into the United Kingdom. In 1998, the ten hotels of the Dutch hotel chain Postiljon were acquired.
In 1999, 148 hotels were integrated into the network, including 42 Libertel hotels, 27 hotels in Germany and 27 in Australia. New hotels were opened in Algeria, Morocco, Mauritania, Jordan, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, and Yemen.
Read more about this topic: Mercure Hotels
Famous quotes containing the words history and/or expansion:
“Modern Western thought will pass into history and be incorporated in it, will have its influence and its place, just as our body will pass into the composition of grass, of sheep, of cutlets, and of men. We do not like that kind of immortality, but what is to be done about it?”
—Alexander Herzen (1812–1870)
“We are caught up Mr. Perry on a great wave whether we will or no, a great wave of expansion and progress. All these mechanical inventions—telephones, electricity, steel bridges, horseless vehicles—they are all leading somewhere. It’s up to us to be on the inside in the forefront of progress.”
—John Dos Passos (1896–1970)