Jimena Faena, Vice President of Marketing & Revenue Management for Latin America and the Caribbean at Wyndham Hotels & Resorts.
Being here at FITUR, what plans do you have for this year?
Wyndham is at the fair strengthening relationships with key accounts and partners to maximize revenue for our hotels. There are many new developments coming up for 2025. We have just finished 18 months in which we opened 31 hotels, which is a lot, approximately 1,200 rooms. These are new hotels on islands like Barbados and Aruba, where we didn't have any before. We also closed a big deal with a commercial alliance with Decameron, which reinforces our second big news, which is that we have a collection of All Inclusive hotels, which amounts to 40 hotels. Our collection with Palladium, Decameron, Viva Resorts by Wyndham and Wyndham Grand in Barbados, which we just opened. We are very happy and we also came to strengthen that collection with our main commercial partners.
There must also be remodeled hotels, such as the one in Cancun.
Yes, the Wyndham Grand Cancun All Inclusive Resort & Spa, which is also present at the fair, has had a very large investment this year, with remodeling of rooms and common areas. In Cancun we have the Wyndham Alltra, which are also hotels that receive a lot of European market. That is why the strength of Fitur is important for generating business for the entire Caribbean, mainly Mexico, the Dominican Republic and islands like Barbados.
And more openings are coming for 2025, but... What plans do you have regarding participation in events?
In our region we will be at FIT, ABAV and ANATO, and we will also be at major and important market events in the United States.
What can you tell us about the coming year?
As important for 2025, Wyndham Hotels & Resorts has been focusing on the development of Extended Stay for more than three years. We already have three brands within the portfolio that address this segment. One is Echo Suites, which was created by Wyndham in 2021. The other is a brand that Wyndham acquired last year, called Waterwalk, which is present mainly in the United States. And the Hawthorn Suites by Wyndham brand has been around for quite some time. These three address the different segments within Extended Stay, and there are already more than 100 hotels in the pipeline that will be opening during 2025, 2026 and 2027 in the main cities of the United States. In addition, there is a great desire to develop this segment in Mexico, mainly due to the growth, all the industrial development and the importance of having comfortable, slightly more complete spaces.
We see a growing trend in this segment, so we are looking for development partners who want to come with us to bring these brands and this business that is growing so much in the United States and in our region. This mix of development and construction companies with international brands that can offer this accommodation to all workers is very important. We see a strong opportunity there, which is not leisure, but in the hotel industry it is a growing segment and Wyndham saw it 3 or 4 years ago and invested there. Today we are seeing the fruits.