(French: "The Mediterranean Club")
The world's first holiday club based on lifestyle, later the model for many similar ventures (e.g. the Japanese SuperClub). Club Méditerranée was founded in 1950 by the Belgian Gerard Blitz and the Frenchman Gilbert Trigano as a non-profit society. Since 1962, the society has been an international company, owned mostly by American Express.
From modest beginnings as an interimistic tent camp in Morocco, the Club Méditerranée had, by 1994, become the world's 11th largest hotel chain, running 110 holiday towns and hotels on five continents, and hosting approximately 1.5 million guests annually.