After the CDC announced earlier this month that U.S.-bound flyers would need a negative Covid-19 antigen or PCR test prior to boarding, Apple Leisure Group's AMResorts was among the first major hospitality players in Mexico and the Caribbean to unveil a comprehensive testing program across the vast majority of its 67-property portfolio. Hotels editor Christina Jelski recently touched base with Apple Leisure Group CEO Alejandro Reynal to discuss the group's testing rollout as well as the impact the CDC's new requirement could have on AMResorts' recovery.
Alejandro Reynal
Q: With AMResorts' footprint spanning Mexico, Jamaica, Curacao, the Dominican Republic, Costa Rica, Panama and Spain, how challenging was it to quickly ramp up testing across such a broad range of destinations?
A: It was a challenge to react proactively to the situation. But because we already had strong relations with private hospitals and health providers [across all of our markets] through the creation of our CleanComplete Verification protocols, we had a base that was already established.
Caribbean islands have put protocols in place for travelers. Our map and report provides details on each country's entry requirements for U.S. visitors.
Of course, the primary issue here, when you have this sort of a requirement for U.S. tourists, is in the scale and the number of tests that you have to perform. So we had to work very hard, very quickly, to be able to create the necessary scale to be able to do all this testing. And there is also complexity related to the fact that not every country -- like, Costa Rica, for example -- has certified the faster antigen test. In those locations, we need to do the PCR tests, not the antigen tests. And lastly, another key element here is needing to be very proactive in terms of our communication effort. We are in constant conversation with the travel agent community, our travel partners and our guests, just to make sure that we've explained what we're doing and that the entire experience is seamless.
Q: What was the recovery landscape looking like for AMResorts prior to the CDC's announcement?
A: The market that had really started to come back for us sooner than others was Mexico, particularly Cancun and Los Cabos. We saw a level of demand there that was still lower than in prior years, but it was coming back. And there were several factors playing into that equation. The first is that for U.S. tourists, they know Mexico well, and the perception is that it's a location close to home. Second, since the beginning of the pandemic, Mexico has been fairly consistent in terms of its requirements, whereas other countries have changed protocols and their communication has not been as consistent. We have also played a very important role with the reopening of our hotels throughout Mexico. That productivity around reopening and implementing all our protocols and standards has made travel agents and tourists, in general, feel more comfortable. And there's also availability of airlift. Countries in which there's more airlift, where the hotel capacity is open and where protocols are friendly to the tourists are going to bounce back sooner.
Q: With recovery still in the very early stages, will the testing requirement potentially change things for destinations that are just starting to bounce back?
A: The fact is that the new CDC requirement will impact some demand. It's hard to have a firm point of view in terms of just how much it's going to have impact, but our ability to react very quickly and proactively with our testing measures is precisely intended to mitigate that impact. But I will say, I think the good news is that the U.S. is accepting the antigen test as part of its requirement, because there would have been much more of an impact if it were only the PCR tests. From that perspective, I think that we received the CDC announcement as generally positive, in terms of the requirement, versus what could have been a worst-case scenario with the country only accepting a PCR test.
Clarification: The name of AMResorts' testing program is CleanComplete Verification protocols; an incorrect name appeared in an earlier version of this article.