In this context, Travel2latam spoke with Arlenes García, Sales Director for Latam at Sandals Resorts.
What are your expectations for a new edition of FIT?
We are super excited to be here at FIT 2024 to showcase Sandals' vision, the growth and expansion of our brands, with resorts now on islands such as Saint Vincent and The Grenadines, and Sandals Royal Curaçao, which continues to have a huge impact in Latin America, as well as Sandals Dunn's River in Jamaica.
We just returned from a trip with approximately 65 travel agents from all over Latin America, whom we took to see Jamaica and showed them our house, Sandals and Beaches, in Jamaica. And when you share with your travel agents, you realize that there is a world of opportunities, and this fair is just one example of that.
As a company, we want to continue educating our travel agents and sharing with our sales team. Here we are with Betsabet Flores, who is our representative for Argentina, Uruguay and Paraguay. There is Joyce Grossman, who is in charge of Chile and Bolivia. And we have Lía Constante, who represents part of Brazil. When you sit down to talk with them and with these colleagues who pass by our stand, whom we are very grateful for their interest in our product, you realize that there are countless opportunities that arise at these types of fairs. For us, being here, like every year, facing the public, is a pleasure.
What new expansions or openings do you have?
Sandals continues to expand in the Caribbean, we have plans for a Beaches Resort in Barbados, also a Beaches in Jamaica, in Runaway Bay. Our beach products are coveted in Latin America and here in Argentina Beaches Turks and Caicos is sold a lot, as it is the largest Beaches resort, but also Beaches Ocho Rios and Beaches Negril are super popular.
This product for family vacations is common here in Argentina, and being able to say that we continue to grow and venture into new room categories is very important. Today we have the round room with an upper terrace, where you can enjoy the sun during the day, but at night enjoy the stars, comets and stars. We have the Over the Water Suites that are so popular, it is a spectacular product. We have private boat transfers and personalized butler service 24 hours a day.
Connectivity is very important to you…
If there is one thing that has us all in the industry very excited, it is that there has been a lot of progress in connectivity, with the southern markets announcing new routes practically every day and that helps a lot to fill up those beautiful properties more and more.
Latam is going to start flying again, connecting passengers not only from Lima, which is going to be the hub, but also passengers from Paraguay in Asunción, Chile, Uruguay and Argentina, that is, it will be possible to reach Jamaica with a direct flight from Lima, Peru, three times a week. Added to the efforts of Copa, which flies every day to Curaçao. We also have American Airlines with whom we connect passengers through the United States, and as is well known, Arajet has several connections, as do Avianca and Aeroméxico with Mexico.
For us, industry colleagues represent the power to move forward. They are the airlines and also the tourism bureaus of the different islands, because it is important to tell people about our product and obviously about what you can do in the destination. That work and that alliance that we are strengthening more and more is the perfect formula for us to continue educating travel agents to show the best product to their clients.
You made a great effort to come here with this stand, but the destinations where the hotels are located also came to promote. Is that correct?
Yes. We were just chatting with Luciana Alonso from the Jamaica Tourist Board. Coincidentally, we were in Jamaica two days ago on a familiarization trip with agents from all over the region, where she was able to give a presentation and show them a little about Jamaica, in addition to our efforts to show all the resorts on the island to travel agents.
I believe that this is definitely the place to meet or interact with those we already know and with whom we work closely, that alliance that is growing more and more and that makes our travel agents continue to prefer that channel to promote the product and to offer their clients, our clients, based on their tastes and preferences, the best option.
What goals had been planned at the beginning of the year and how are you doing in relation to that goal?
Argentina, for example, is a market that continues to surprise us every day, because despite any circumstance or change that exists in the country, Sandals and Beaches products are preferred. We work closely with travel agencies and wholesale operators who are committed to the brands and who continue to strive to know the product firsthand and bring that experience to their customers.
And from a professional point of view, there are incentives for travel agencies, the possibility of them traveling on vacation with their family or their partner, because at the end of the day, every story you tell is the possibility that one of your clients will ask you to vacation in a destination or resort like the one where you are vacationing. I think that is what it is all about, social networks are becoming increasingly stronger and the travel agent understands that he is an advisor, a designer of vacations and dreams, and there is no one better to know a product and provide it first hand.
At the same time, showing a little bit of our resorts and experiences at the fair, through our conversations with travel agents, is what we want to do when we participate in events like these. Being able to share with each of the visitors to our stand and being able to tell them about the news, the inclusions, the destinations where Sandals & Beaches are located is important.
We also highlight differences with other products, for example, we have a camp for children or teenagers or the kids camp as we call it in English, which allows moms and dads to relax and unwind and enjoy an enjoyable experience knowing that the children are taken care of. The same goes for the water parks or the Sesame Street characters. In the case of Sandals, there are themed entertainment nights such as the night in white. There is so much to tell about each experience that being here allows us to invite our colleagues in the industry to learn about and take a closer look at Sandals & Beaches.
Companies like Sandals promote sustainability initiatives related to environmental care and corporate social responsibility…
We are careful with the environment because the Caribbean is our home, with that clean sea. As a company we eliminate everything that affects the environment in our resorts, which are Air Check certified, and above all through the Sandals Foundation we support Caribbean communities, education and the environment. Recently on a trip to Jamaica, we visited a school where we brought school supplies with our travel agents and gave them to the children, and we also shared activities such as singing, reading stories and coloring.
This moment fills us with joy, because in addition to being a company that continues to grow and expand in the Caribbean, through the founding of Sandals, a non-profit foundation, we reach out to these communities and provide them with support. We build schools, we make sure they have computers, that they share stories with us, that they can participate in an event where we celebrate the end of the year and give out toys.
Sandals is not just a money-making venture in the Caribbean. Through Sandals and through the foundation we are able to reach so many places. Every employee means a family that lives, is fed and maintained through us being able to fill those resorts.
How many people work at the Sandals hotels you operate?
There are resorts with more than 1,000 employees in the nine Caribbean Islands. Added to that are the employees we have at Unique Vacations, which is the commercial arm, where there are more than 13,000. There is also Sandals Missouri International, which is the entire Sandals corporate segment in Jamaica. Each one of those families makes a difference in the Caribbean, and all of this supports each destination, each Caribbean Island.
Have you opened a new landmark in any of the destinations you mentioned?
I was talking to some colleagues in Curaçao a long time ago and they told me that they were not familiar with the concept of a butler, that is something totally new. We have arrived at that destination and we feel so much a part of it that we have exchange programs where our guests can go out and get to know the typical gastronomy of Curaçao, visiting some of the restaurants with which we have an alliance. That is the true all-inclusive for the society. The guest can get to know the beaches, the culture and the gastronomy that there is in Curaçao, because there is really a lot to tell.