Xavier Mufraggi
For the past decade, Club Med has been a brand in transition. Those changes continued last week with the rollout of the adults-only Zen Oasis concept at the Club Med Punta Cana. Senior Editor Robert Silk sat down with Club Med North American CEO Xavier Mufraggi at the grand opening to discuss Zen Oasis as well as what to expect next from the French resort company.
Q: Explain the Zen Oasis concept and why you are adding these areas.
A: The main point is that when you travel as a family, you want to have time with your kids, but you also want to have adult time. If you are a couple, you want to be alone with adults and not to mingle with the kids or other people. But you want to have lots of activities and sports to do. So instead of adding a brand for adults and another brand for families, we understand that we need to have in our resort a place where couples can really feel well.
Q: How many Zen Oases do you plan?
A: We plan to build three more by the end of 2017. One will be at our Da Balaia resort in the Algarve region of Portugal. Another will be at Club Med Palmiye in Antalya, Turkey, and the third will be at La Palmyre in France. Also, in all of our hotels we'll have a quiet pool. It's already in about 20 resorts.
Q: It has been about a decade since Club Med decided to reinvent itself by focusing more on upscale properties and on hotels that cater to couples and families. Are you happy with your progress?
A: We've been happy because now 80% of our guests are affluent. We have 70% families and 20% couples, where we used to be divided: a third singles, a third couples and a third families.
Q: A decade ago, there were more than 100 Club Med resorts worldwide. Now there are just 66. How did you decide which properties to keep in the portfolio?
A: We looked at locations and thought, can we transform it to a 4- or 5-star resort? If not, we sold them. Selling the properties, we reinvested the cash in renovating the other 66 properties. So we invested $1.6 billion in the last five years to move all our properties upscale. The goal now is to open three properties per year starting in 2017 and 2018 and five per year by 2019. By then, we will be opening two properties per year just in China.
Q: How much expansion do you plan in North America in the next five years?
A: We want to open a property per year.
Q: Where will the first new one be?
A: We have different options: one in Mexico, one in the Dominican Republic and one in St. Martin. There's even one in the ABC islands [Aruba, Bonaire and Curacao].
Q: What about ski resorts? You don't have any left in North America.
A: The plan is to have two. In the U.S. we're choosing between sites in Colorado and Utah. In Canada we're looking at two options on the Quebec market. We want to have one of the ski resorts open by late 2018.
Q: What sets Creactive Playscape in Punta Cana apart from other Club Med circus facilities?
A: With Cirque du Soleil our goal was to go a step forward. We want our clients to experience what the performers of Cirque du Soleil do during the shows. On the Creactive playground we are able to do 30 different experiences. Really important to us is the staff, which includes a mix of people coming from Cirque du Soleil.