The Mercan Group is expected to open new hotels over the coming months in Portugal and is set to open the highly anticipated Hard Rock Hotel in 2026.
The multinational company is now celebrating 35 years as it continues to excel in investment, permanent residence, employment, immigration, consultancy, and hospitality services.
Headed by CEO Jerry Morgan, the company has successfully built a strong network of offices in Canada, the United States, the United Arab Emirates, Portugal, Greece, China, Cambodia, Thailand, the Philippines, and Vietnam. Aside from their own offices, they have partners in over 50 countries, making them the number one choice for customers from 120 countries.
“We started our first projects in Canada, in my home province of Saskatchewan back in 1989, and over the years we have expanded into many countries throughout the world,” founder and CEO, Jerry Morgan, told The Portugal News.
“In hospitality, location is everything”
The founder went on to express what makes the Mercan Group what it is today, “I think it is just understanding what our customers are looking for. Obviously, they want to get the Golden Visa, but I think more importantly, they are looking for the security of their investment. We are providing safety above all and a pathway for investors to get their investment back. That has always been really our driving force and people like that.”
Adding, “We always partner with internationally branded hotels because that provides a certain sense of security, whether that is Marriott, Hilton, IHG, or Hard Rock. It’s a brand name that people can feel comfortable with. Separately, the other thing that is really important is location. In hospitality, location is everything, and our hotels are always strategically located.”
Jerry Morgan shared that “Portugal has been a big part of Mercan Group over the last 9 years, and it is probably our most important part of the company at this point in time.” He went on to highlight that diversifying has been key to the company’s success, “Immigration-related businesses are constantly changing so what we have always had to do is be able to diversify. In Canada, we are involved in all aspects of immigration as well as the investor program. We established ourselves in the US and then our customers wanted more than North America, they wanted Europe and that is when we looked at Portugal due to its popularity and attractive investment program.”
Jerry Morgan told The Portugal News that the company ended up landing in Porto as their headquarters because there were several projects that were very interesting. “Our first project was renovating an old port wine storage facility that belonged to the Portuguese Royal Family on Rua das Flores, one of the most iconic and historical areas of Porto. This was such a unique project of a building almost 300 years old and converting it into the 5-star Casa da Companhia Hotel.”
Investing in Portugal
When it comes to investing in Portugal, the CEO made it clear that “the investment environment is very good in Portugal. I think there are still a lot of very good opportunities, and we still are attracted to the hospitality industry, which still has considerable room to grow. We are getting more travelers from North America, and I am always excited with more flights coming from Montreal, where there are now 3 flights a day. Our number one market for investors is the United States, and they have a very positive opinion of Portugal as a place to invest, and we hear more about their good experiences with the country.”
He went on to explain that the Mercan Group has plenty of plans for expansion in Portugal over the coming years. “We have about 30 properties in Portugal, and we will be opening three more in the next three months. Highlighting the unique Holiday Inn Beja, which is an investment of €16.8 million, and The Ocean View Hotel St. André located on the Alentejo coast. We are involved in a lot of the local communities in Portugal that normally don’t have these internationally branded hotels, so we are making a positive contribution to the community in these places.”
Adding, “We also have a property in Amarante and Madeira, and then in the Algarve, we will have the 5-star Hard Rock Hotel in Portimão in 2026, and we are also building a five-star Hilton down there. In Faro, we are building a large property and we just opened the Hotel California Urban Beach in Albufeira, in an investment of more than €20 million.
“We have two residential projects in Lisbon, and we have a huge mixed development for Évora, which will be mixed-use, residential and commercial, and we are looking at another huge project in Porto and several large five-star hotels and branded residences in Lisbon. We have plenty of projects on our plate, and we will continue to expand as new opportunities arise across the country.”
Mercan Group arrives in Greece
“Our biggest diversification is that we have just done our first hotel in Greece, so we will be launching a number of hotels in Greece under the Greek Golden Visa program. We anticipate huge growth for us in the next two years in the Greek hospitality market. This is done through our Portugal division, so it is a big expansion that will add to our hospitality and hotel investments. Separately, we are also looking at Hungary and their possible new program, so that could be on the horizon by the end of the year.”