Grupo Punta Cana, a giant in expansion

Grupo Puntacana is not just another company in the tourism industry, it is a true success story in the Americas. To learn about its history and current status, we interviewed its Executive Director of Marketing Manuel Sajour. We share his responses below:

How did the company arise and what is the projection that you have?
The Punta Cana Group is one of the most important firms in the Dominican Republic, it is a destination that has more than 45,000 rooms and drives the country's economy.
We have been in the market for 52 years, the firm was born when our founder and president Frank Ranieri associates with a very important lawyer from the United States named Teodoro Gil and they begin the dream of transforming a jungle into a great destination. They have had the vision and determination to work and invest to develop the area. When the Punta Cana International Airport was inaugurated, it was the turning point, in 1984 because Frank Ranieri created a small airport to bring his tourists here and today it is the most important international terminal in the entire Caribbean island. This has given that economic and tourist motorization to the area and we are very grateful. Frank as then still present with us in providing the power of decision and the vision of the company.

The diversification they have today is remarkable, what can you tell us about it?
Today they visit us at Punta Cana Resort Club, which is our tourist part where we have a hotel as important as the Tortuga Bay, a luxury property, perhaps the most important in the Caribbean. We also have other hotels of the Marriott chain, a total of 45,000 acres of land where there are more than 9 luxury communities that Real Estate live here with us. We have both tourist and service diversification and now we are venturing into the process of setting up a free zone and air and sea transportation.

From the tourism point of view, what is the growth projection?
Right now we are in a remodeling process, updating 450 rooms that we have within the resort, however there are projects for three new hotels. We have enough room to grow 3 miles of white sand if needed. Right now two new hotels are being designed and we still don't know which luxury franchise will come with us, but we are working on expanding and building additional hotel offerings.

How do you manage HR being such a diverse firm?
We have a human management department that has a huge training division, the type of tourist hotel service entails careful training and constant training. It is the only way that you can differentiate your product. The pandemic has left several challenges, many jobs were lost and with the reactivation new talent is still being trained at this time.

What are the most important source markets for you?
Our natural market is North America, Canada and the United States, accounting for more than 57% of our turnover, however, as we are the most connected airport in the Caribbean, the number of direct flights to European cities and South American cities means that we have the potential to grow in other countries. quickly. Connectivity, for example, with the Latin American market has been growing to be the second most important region for us. Argentina, Brazil and Colombia are growing a lot. In the European market, our main issuing markets are France, Germany and England.