The word around the industry is that leisure travel to Central and South America is booming. Destinations Editor Kenneth Kiesnoski spoke with Richie Karaburun, president of Travel Bound and GTA North America, to gauge the extent of the trend.
Travel Weekly: Many say leisure traffic to Central and South America is up. Does Travel Bound find this is the case?
Karaburun: Our January-February bookings are looking stronger than last year at this time. Already we are seeing Costa Rica, Chile and Ecuador up [by] double-digit growth. We'll be doing some promotions for the region during 2011 to boost our market share into this destination.
TW: How many hotel, tour and other products do you offer to Central/South America?
Karaburun: Travel Bound has more than 600 hotels in South America and 200-plus services. We are also working on contracting directly with many local chains like Fiesta Americana. ... This destination is a new target for our growth, and we'll have many more products in the upcoming year.
TW: What are some of the Latin American destinations Travel Bound offers?
Karaburun: With GTA's global buying power, we have the major tourist cities, but we also have secondary locations: Mendoza and Calafate in Argentina; Manaus and Florianopolis in Brazil; Vine de Mar and Valparaiso, Chile; and more. Agents should go to the website to see the variety of cities and regions in these countries.
TW: What are your most popular Central/South America products?
Karaburun: Our top-selling hotels are: in Rio, the Sheraton Rio, Astoria Palace, JW Marriott and Augustos Copacabana; in Buenos Aires, the Marriott Plaza, Claridge, and Best Western Central; in Santiago, Chile, the Crowne Plaza, Sheraton and InterContinental; in Lima, Peru, the Grand Bolivar; and in San Jose, Costa Rica, the Best Western San Jose.
[With services], we do well with half-day city tours in many of these cities, as clients can customize their vacations to their interest: Iguazu Falls; half- and full-day sightseeing tours in various cities and adventure tours; Arenal volcano in Costa Rica; Machu Picchu; etc.
TW: Any plans to grow your Central/South America product line?
Karaburun: We will add many hotels to our portfolio. GTA is also opening an office in Brazil to boost our presence in the market.