Gay Nagle Myers
It's winter for a few more weeks -- peak travel season in the Caribbean. How are things going?
"February and March are much stronger this year than last year," said Pleasant Holidays president and CEO Jack Richards.
The company saw double-digit growth in Caribbean vacation-package sales last year. "It was a great year for us, and 2019 is going to be even better," he said. "And I can see that the Caribbean region will really soar for us in 2020."
Pleasant launched its Caribbean program in 2008. Today that region has grown to become the No. 2 destination for the company based on sales and passenger volume, surpassing Mexico. (Hawaii is still No. 1.)
One reason for the operator's growth, according to Richards, is the expansion of Pleasant's product line. Its current portfolio totals 257 properties in 23 island destinations; 33 villa accommodations; wedding, honeymoon and group travel offerings; and sightseeing activities on 16 islands.
Best sellers continue to be the Dominican Republic, followed by Jamaica, the Bahamas, Aruba, St. Lucia and Turks and Caicos.
"Some travelers are hesitant to visit the islands impacted by the 2017 hurricanes," he said. "Several of the larger hotels in the USVI, the BVI and St. Maarten aren't yet back on line, but we are excited that Puerto Rico is getting better every day."
As for the rest of its portfolio, Pleasant continues to add properties, with two of the newest being the Impressive Premium Resort & Spa and the Impressive Resort & Spa, both all-inclusives in Punta Cana.
Pleasant decreased its deposit fees for Caribbean vacations by 75%, to $50 per person, and increased its direct connectivity with hotels to offer instant confirmations and last-room availability on the most popular all-inclusives, adults-only and family resorts. "The connectivity aspect is driving a lot of business for us," he said. "Ten years ago everything was manual. We started this in 2014, being electronically connected to our hotel partners in real time, and our third phase launches between May and July this year, which will have a big impact in 2020."
Last year Pleasant took a look at its groups department and shifted emphasis by renaming it Boutique Groups, targeted at groups reserving smaller blocks of rooms. That strategy has paid off with triple-digit increases in bookings with
the smaller groups, which average between eight and 10 rooms. "This is
resonating well with travel advisors," he said.
"Of course we still handle large bookings -- 100 rooms, for example -- but we saw the trend in groups reserving smaller blocks for destination weddings, birthdays, family reunions and bachelorette parties."
He's also seen a big shift to upscale resort bookings, saying that bookings for its luxury Journese brand are up year over year. "Price is not an objective for these travelers. It's the luxury resorts that they want and those are the ones that they book."
A year-over-year increase in airlift is also driving today's bookings, Richards said. According to OAG figures, there were 135,162 nonstop flights from the U.S. to the Caribbean in 2018, an 18% increase over with five years ago.