In this context, Travel2latam spoke with Héctor Álvarez, Business Development Director of Iberostar.
What expectations do you have for FIT 2024?
As Iberostar, we have been present at this fair every year for more than 25 years. There are many expectations because during the days we are open to the public we have the opportunity to come into contact with more than 50,000 visitors who come to the fair and to be able to tell them about the benefits and advantages of our holiday resorts in the Caribbean area. We are going to meet with professionals, tour operators and travel agents who are also a fundamental part of our distribution chain, and we have to reach them with a message about everything new in our chain, about the openings of new hotels and also, greet them, give them a hug and tell them that we are here.
Each property is very special, but there are new ones as you mentioned. What are you officially presenting?
We are presenting two major new features. On the one hand, we are announcing our entire renovation plan for the properties that we carried out during 2023 and the current 2024, for example, nearly 4,000 rooms and the main common areas of the most popular hotels in the Argentine market. This was a bit of a plan that the company had coming out of the pandemic, which decided to pause its international expansion to dedicate itself to renovating the most popular product there is, especially in the Argentine market. Therefore, our properties in Mexico, the Dominican Republic, Jamaica, and even in Brazil, all have renovations of rooms and common areas. Once this plan is completed, by the end of the year we will renew the international expansion with the opening of new hotels.
That is why we are announcing at this fair that on December 18th we will be landing in a destination where we were not present before, which is the destination of Aruba, the happy island, where we have a very nice project, spread over time with three hotels. Specifically, on December 18th we will open our first hotel, JOIA Aruba by Iberostar, located on Eagle Beach.
It is a low-rise, luxury hotel located on one of the most famous beaches in the entire Caribbean area. It will have 240 rooms, all suites with sea views. In total, the hotel will have bars and restaurants, seven dining locations, and will have buildings for a spa area, a convention and congress center, and three swimming pools. It is a very complete and high-level hotel that I believe will mark a milestone in Aruba due to its typology and the concept of decoration, design, everything related to the marine world and the nature of Aruba.
It will be a hotel unlike any other in Aruba today. Sales will begin on December 18, and it will be available to the public in 2025 and 2026.
There are also more openings planned in Mexico and the Dominican Republic, but we will be announcing them formally starting next year.
This is a very important development and will also be a milestone for the chain… How does the Argentine market view this property?
The authorities of the Aruba destination have classified Argentina as a strategic market. Although we know that it is not the main market of the island, it is growing.
Argentina's growth was the largest in Latin America, and, after Colombia, it is the second market in the region for the Aruba destination. Therefore, we have many expectations focused on what the Argentine market can be, with growth above 30% this 2024 on average for all the destinations where Iberostar is present.
In terms of percentages, 30% is a lot for a hotel company, but it is also accompanied by growth in the rest of the Latin American countries. Chile is up 20% and Peru is up 5%, that is, all the major markets are following this trend, and we are very happy as a company.