NH Hoteles and Instituto Cervantes sign a global agreement encompassing all the countries in which both entities are present

• NH Hoteles, first hotel chain to join the Institute’s Circle of Friends
• The hotel group and the institution will work together to promote Spain’s image around the world, spreading its culture and innovative flair

Madrid, 14th December 2011
Carmen Caffarel, director of the Instituto Cervantes, and Mariano Pérez Claver, chairman and CEO of NH Hoteles, signed the agreement that makes the hotel chain a member of the Institute’s Circle of Friends in the recently inaugurated NH Palacio de Tepa (Madrid) this morning.
The agreement will raise both parties’ international profiles and spread their commitment to culture.
Carmen Caffarel, director of the Instituto Cervantes, said that “despite being a relatively new initiative, the Circle of Friends is attracting leading companies in each sector. Thanks to their prestige this companies help to successfully brand Spain, and contribute to the country´s solvency in these challenging times. NH Hoteles is one of these benchmark companies”.
Mariano Pérez Claver, chairman and CEO of NH Hoteles, said that “there are genuine similarities between our company and the Instituto Cervantes, as both organisations have an international presence and persevere in their commitment to promote the arts, literature and gastronomy. For NH Hoteles, this agreement unquestionably implies an excellent opportunity to join forces and raise the Group’s visibility worldwide, hand in hand with an institution as prestigious as the Instituto Cervantes”.
NH Hoteles develops various initiatives that purse to contribute to the promotion of culture. The Mario Vargas Llosa NH Short Story Award stands out among them. This prize, which is backed by the most recent Spanish literature Nobel Prize laureate, will be awarded for the fourteenth year in 2012.
Instituto Cervantes is a public institution created to promote and teach Spanish and spread the culture of Spanish-speaking countries worldwide. With a wide network of 77 centres located across 44 countries, it has built an exceptional reputation both within and beyond Spain, thanks to the quality of its educational and cultural activity.
NH Hoteles (www.nh-hotels.com) ranks third in the European business hotel segment. The company operates 400 hotels with almost 60,000 rooms in 25 countries across Europe, the Americas and Africa. NH Hoteles currently has 21 hotel projects under construction which will add roughly 3,000 new rooms to its portfolio. As a responsible business operating in the tourism industry, NH Hoteles anticipates the needs of its stakeholders (customers, employees, suppliers, society and the environment), paying close attention to detail and coming up with efficient and sustainable solutions.