Hyatt’s María Zarraluqui Shares How the Inclusive Collection Is Redefining Global All-Inclusive Hospitality

María Zarraluqui is Senior Vice President, Global Growth & Owner Relations for Hyatt’s Inclusive Collection. In this role, she leads global resort development and repositioning efforts, implements asset-light growth strategies, and cultivates strategic relationships with owners and partners to drive the long-term expansion of Hyatt’s global all-inclusive portfolio.

Prior to joining Hyatt, Ms. Zarraluqui served as Vice President of Global Development at Meliá Hotels International, where she spent more than 25 years driving international growth. 

Throughout her career, she has led development efforts across Europe, the Middle East, Africa, Southeast Asia, China, and the Americas, overseeing more than 350 hotel transactions in both emerging and established markets. Her expertise spans joint ventures, strategic alliances, and innovative development models that have accelerated portfolio expansion and strengthened brand presence worldwide.

Maria, you joined Hyatt earlier this year in an unprecedented role as the company’s first-ever SVP dedicated strictly to global all-inclusive growth. What drew you to this specific role, and what are your impressions of the portfolio’s scale so far?

What first caught my attention about Hyatt’s Inclusive Collection was its scale as the world’s largest leisure and all-inclusive player, with more than 58,000 rooms. But beyond that initial attention-grabber, what truly convinced me was gaining a deeper understanding of our strengths in resort operations and distribution, and, above all, the exceptional talent across the organization. Being part of a team that brings together the best talent from the most successful all-inclusive companies of the past two decades is an opportunity that is difficult to pass up.

Now that I have had more time to settle in, I couldn’t be more excited about the global ambition of our growth plans. What gives me confidence is that, despite already being a major player in the category, we still have tremendous whitespace ahead of us. Across the markets where we intend to grow, the total addressable market exceeds 350,000 rooms, leaving significant opportunities to expand our footprint in the years ahead, not just consolidating our presence in key markets for us like the Caribbean but strengthen others like South European countries, Middle East, North Africa, India, and Asia. We are aiming to be a top reference hotel company for all destinations where leisure and all-inclusive is or will be its main driver.

With the collection now encompassing 155 resorts, what are your top three absolute development priorities for the remainder of 2026?

More than thinking about the remainder of this year, I believe three priorities will shape our agenda over the short and medium term.

First, we will focus on strengthening our already strong presence in Latin America and the Caribbean through disciplined growth and high-quality projects.

Second, we will build on the initial progress we have already made in EMEA. While we currently operate nearly 50 resorts across Europe, our ambition is not only to deepen our presence in the markets where we already operate, such as Spain, Greece and Portugal, but also to establish a foothold in other mature Mediterranean markets and strategic destinations such as Italy, Croatia, Albania, Turkey, Morocco, Egypt, Cape Verde, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Oman and Bahrain, among others.

And third, we will prioritize greenfield development opportunities in Asia Pacific, a region where we do not currently have a presence but where we see significant potential for growth.

You are actively targeting expansion in North Africa, the Middle East, and ASPAC. How must the traditional all-inclusive model adapt to succeed in these culturally diverse new markets?

That is a question many resort owners ask themselves, and while the answer is different for every destination and every project –meaning there is no one-size-fits-all solution– the good news is Hyatt’s Inclusive Collection has already successfully adapted its Caribbean all-inclusive model to Europe. As a result, we are uniquely equipped to address that very legitimate and important concern.

As we look to expand into new destinations across North Africa, the Middle East, Asia Pacific and other European markets where we do not yet have a presence, we will draw on our experience adapting our brands and guest experiences to the cultural and market nuances of each destination. We do so with the benefit of having successfully navigated that same journey when we first expanded our leisure portfolio across the Atlantic.

What will guide those efforts is our commitment to celebrating the unique history and culture of each destination through design, amenities and every aspect of the guest experience; respecting and embracing the cultural expectations of each market; and at the same time delivering a level of consistency that guests recognize across our portfolio.

Ultimately, our goal is to offer both existing and new guests the seamless, elevated getaway experience they have come to know and expect from a Hyatt resort, while ensuring that each property feels authentic to the destination in which it operates.

Following massive milestones like Apple Leisure Group and the recent Playa Hotels & Resorts acquisition, will your future pipeline lean more on major corporate M&As or organic, individual property conversions?

The Inclusive Collection’s unprecedented growth journey has indeed been driven by a combination of organic expansion and transformative transactions, including the acquisition of Apple Leisure Group in 2021, the joint venture with Piñero in 2024 for the management of the Bahia Principe resorts and brands, and, most recently, the acquisition of Playa Hotels & Resorts.

In doing so, we have demonstrated a proven ability to execute large-scale acquisitions and strategic partnerships that create meaningful value. That track record positions us well to capture the myriad portfolio opportunities that still exist within the leisure segment, a category that remains remarkably fragmented and is characterized by a large number of small and medium-sized players. In many cases, these businesses are now in the hands of second- and third-generation owners who are looking for partners capable of helping them unlock their next chapter of growth.

As we look ahead to our future pipeline, we will of course continue to pursue individual property conversions. However, an important part of what we are already evaluating –and what we intend to prioritize– are new, transformative transactions. As always, these opportunities will be guided by cultural alignment with prospective partners and by the conviction that they can be structured as true win-win propositions for everyone involved.

An impressive 30% of your owners manage four or more Hyatt all-inclusive properties. What is the key to maintaining such a deep level of trust and loyalty with your development partners?

We are fortunate to have many owners who entrust us with more than one resort within our portfolio, and we work continuously to nurture those relationships. We do so not only by delivering strong results, but also by maintaining an open and ongoing dialogue that allows us to benefit from their unique perspective on how we can better support their goals and continue improving as a partner. Through transparent communication, regular touchpoints to ensure alignment, and a shared commitment to achieving mutual objectives, we are proud to support owners as they expand within our portfolio. We look forward to continuing that journey together as Hyatt’s Inclusive Collection grows around the world.

Driven by a powerful Q1 performance with RevPAR up 7.4%, how confident are you that this soaring investor and traveler demand will sustain through the end of the year?

While we are very pleased with our performance during the first quarter of the year, during which our resort portfolio indeed delivered RevPAR growth of more than 7% but also equally strong ADR growth, we are aware that 2026 is also a year of challenges.

We continue to operate in a volatile geopolitical environment, while traveler behavior has increasingly shifted toward shorter booking windows and is being influenced by a legitimate perception of higher airfares across a number of key routes.

That said, we remain optimistic. We benefit from very strong fundamentals, a scale that becomes a competitive advantage in more challenging environments, and the reality that, since the pandemic, travel has become a priority that people are unwilling to forgo. So, demand remains healthy, and what is evolving is the way we capture it. As the leader in our category, we are uniquely positioned to understand those shifts and adapt accordingly.

With several planned openings through the end of the year and a proven ability to navigate changing market conditions, we are encouraged by our outlook and confident that we will close 2026 as the undisputed leader in all-inclusive and the leisure hospitality market.