And the projects in São Luís do Maranhão are not the group’s only projects in Brazil, which this year alone opened three new hotels in this country. One of them the Vila Galé Collection Ouro Preto, in the former headquarters of Portugal’s first cavalry regiment in Brazil, in another example of heritage recovery.
In the pipeline is also the first Nep Kids in Brazil (scheduled for 2027), alongside another new hotel that will be built in Coruripe (Alagoas), and many more projects, including one in Brumadinho, in the state of Minas Gerais, which is still in the initial design phase, and another in Florianópolis, Santa Catarina.
Vila Galé Collection Amazonia
There are 227 rooms, two outdoor swimming pools and one heated indoor pool, a spa and a gym, three conference rooms (two of them with capacity for 200 people) and two restaurants that are ready to welcome some of the delegations coming to the UN Climate Conference (COP30) – including the Portuguese one.
“Does the governor want [Helder Barbalho] wants minister Rui Costa [da Casa Civil do presidente Lula da Silva] They came to give us the challenge of building this hotel for COP30 in 11 months, because we were desperate, there was a lack of hotel supply, and we came to do it, it wasn’t a small hotel, it was a big hotel”stated the CEO of Vila Galé.
And when the situation was already difficult, to get everything ready on October 31st, the governor asked if it was possible to bring forward the opening, because of another big event in Belém, the Círio da Nazaré. “If you had the hotel ready by October 9th, it would be wonderful”, said the governor. And the challenge was accepted. “I’m a little crazy”joked Jorge Rebelo de Almeida.
COP30, which starts on November 10th and brings together thousands of people from all over the world, serves as a showcase to put Belém do Pará on the tourism map and other major events. “This hotel will not only survive COP30. The hotel industry cannot only sustain itself with major events”, said Gonçalo Rebelo de Almeida, son of Jorge Rebelo de Almeida and administrator of the group. “We believe that the Vila Galé Collection Amazônia and COP30 will contribute to attracting more events to Belém, developing new tourist itineraries and bringing a new public profile to the city”he added.
The hotel, an investment of 180 million reais (around 30 million euros), is a tribute not only to the Amazon, but also to women, with each room dedicated to a different woman and portraits spread throughout the common areas. A concept already known to more than 1.5 million customers and guests, who have other hotels in the group dedicated, for example, to cinema, opera or music.