In this context, Travel2latam spoke in an interview with Pablo Jaitman, Vice President of Sales at Karisma Hotels & Resorts. In the photo he is accompanied by Jennifer Castro, Director of Sales and Marketing of the chain.
With what objectives did you come to WTM and what is your perception of the event?
For us as a growth project in Latin America, being at WTM is essential because it is one of the most important fairs, and with our focus on Brazil as a market of origin, one of the main markets destined for the Caribbean, to be able to be and reconnect with the accounts that we already have a relationship with, getting to know new accounts and new contracts, talking a little about the reality of our product versus the rest of the competition, understanding the socio-economic situation of the buyer in Brazil, has been very important, very productive.
We feel a little more comfortable now that we have already had two or three fairs with our own presence in Brazil. We have a team that represents us here locally and has also helped us open, so we feel very good and comfortable. We take with us a lot of action plans to execute. We are now very focused on this second quarter of the year where we are increasing occupancy, especially in the hotels in the Dominican Republic and in the Riviera Maya and well, we are always announcing some news. There are also some new hotel projects coming up for 2025 and we started talking now to generate a bit of expectation.
What hotels do you think Brazilians prefer?
Mainly Nickelodeon is a brand that, due to the concept, being a vacation, family, themed hotel, with characters, completely customized, which provides an experience a little different from the rest of the hotels, it is very recognized in the market, people love it. He has completely identified and knows the characters. In addition, we have a lot of content on social networks and others that has been generated. So both Nickelodeon in Riviera and Punta Cana are the ones that have the greatest recognition by the public and the greatest appetite. And from that and as a spearhead we are taking the opportunity to tell about Margaritaville, which is our latest bet in terms of brand alliance, a lifestyle brand with properties in both Cap Cana and Riviera Cancun and Riviera Maya, and with some new properties that will come in the coming years. The truth is that it is a product that never ceases to surprise, but it is still a little more unknown, people are not so familiar with it, so we are talking a lot about it.
What upcoming events are you going to perform at?
Next week we continue at Date in the Dominican Republic, which is a super strong event. We are local, we have companies, and most of our employees are based there, we also have two hotels, with everything that that implies, so we are going to feel very comfortable.
On April 23 we are going to have an event. Everyone is invited to participate: clients, travel agents, operators, wholesalers, online agencies. It is a special event that we do at Nickelodeon Punta Cana, where we are going to tell all the news, the new spaces that the hotel has and the expansion projects such as the water park, which we will open in the coming months. So we are going to continue with that event and space that we opened for our friends and clients in Punta Cana. We will also do some business meetings, where we will tell a little about the news, we will talk about new hotel projects and openings for next year, and We will close marketing or incentive agreements to continue pushing the sale.
And how do you notice the general demand from Latin America and the Caribbean?
We are growing at least the first double-digit cube compared to last year, which is very positive. Not all countries behave the same, we have good behavior from Argentina, Peru, Brazil and Colombia. We are pushing Chile a lot as a market for Caribbean hotels.
We must continue to be present to understand the needs of each of the local markets and seasonality, and put together marketing plans tailored to each of the markets. So that is going to be our focus for the rest of the quarters of the year.
Now, thinking about the summer of North America and the Caribbean, which is a strong season, we have many special activations and activities in the summer of SpongeBob SquarePants in the case of Nickelodeon hotels. We also have events in Margaritaville, where we always welcome guests with special surprises, closely linked to the theme of food and drinks and the entertainment we have at the hotel.
I always see that they are innovating, what is it like behind the scenes of that operation?
The reality is that we are working with the operations team and with a very important concept of experiences and entertainment with the coordination team that helps us. We always distinguish ourselves by having a “wow” experience with the client. This ranges from the care of the hotel facilities, reinvestments in everything that has to do with the furniture, the technology itself and the entertainment part that includes music and activities for adults and children. We are working a lot with the operations team, and we have a transversal calendar for the entire year, so we will continue to push ourselves forward in the rest of the months.