MADRID, May 5 (Reuters) - Spain's Melia Hotels reported a sharply wider first-quarter loss on Wednesday, as COVID-19 continued to put the brakes on global travel, and warned that visibility on future performance remained "very limited" in the short term.

Still, the Mallorca-based firm reaffirmed its forecast for a recovery to begin in the second quarter as vaccination campaigns pick up speed and restrictions on movement are lifted.

"We trust that the vaccination and treatment processes plus coordination between countries on 'safe travel corridors' will allow us to continue improving our bookings," the company said in a statement.

Melia's net loss widened to 130.9 million euros ($157.11 million) from 79.7 million euros a year earlier, when the first pandemic restrictions were introduced only in March, while revenue tumbled 74% to 76.3 million euros.

($1 = 0.8332 euros) (Reporting by Nathan Allen, editing by Andrei Khalip)