KING OF PRUSSIA, Pa. -- It may have been a bruising post-merger year, but Apple Leisure Group (ALG) executives made clear this week that they remain focused on the future and have set their sights on aggressive global growth.
Executive chairman Alex Zozaya told reporters at the company's first Ascend conference -- formerly Mark Travel's annual agent summit -- that he is looking to expand the AMResorts portfolio beyond Mexico and the Caribbean and into Europe and Asia.
AMResorts this year took its Secrets brand to Spain. Zozaya said he also wants to take AMResorts' all-inclusive model to Greece, Turkey and Portugal.
"The next step will be Asia," he said. "I'm very optimistic."
At the same time, John Tarkowski, president of Apple Vacations, said his brand would soon be expanding its offerings to the South Pacific, Florida, California, Las Vegas, Arizona and Europe.
Likewise, Ron Jacobs, head of the company's Funjet and Blue Sky Tours, said Funjet will be expanding its offerings to Asia and Europe.
The company's executive chairman spoke about the challenges it faced as the result of complications from its merger with Mark Travel and issues such as sargassum in Mexico and headlines about tourist deaths in the Dominican Republic.
The plans for global growth follow what executives have admitted was an extremely challenging year as it completed its merger with Mark Travel while navigating external setbacks such as sargassum in Mexico and headlines about tourist deaths in the Dominican Republic, which Jacobs said resulted in a 50% to 60% drop in bookings this past summer.
And while Zozaya is clearly focused on growth, he admitted the company will be cautious as it looks to potential acquisitions.
"We just have to be very careful not to be so greedy, not to run until we can walk in the right way," he said. "The opportunities are still there, and I'm sure there will be more coming. But we have to move more cautiously and make sure we don't have more filling our plate than we can handle."
Introducing Reynal
The meeting also gave ALG the opportunity to introduce its new CEO, Alejandro Reynal, to advisors.
Reynal, who is new to the travel industry, said he was surprised at the passion and deep relationships he saw at the event.
"I have seen many people who have known each other for 30 years," he said. "And that extends to the way they want to relate with us."
Asked about his immediate charge, Reynal, who has a background in retail, technology and customer service, said he is focused initially on working out the remaining glitches from the merger of the ALG and Mark Travel platforms and cultures.
"I am focusing on what I can control, [on] a lot of the internal improvements as a result of the merger," he said. "At the end of the day, I heard from travel agents that we need to be much more customer-focused. I think we have improved. Still, there are a lot of things that we need to resolve."
Apple Leisure Group Vacations also announced a rewards programs that enables advisors to earn points across all its brands on every trip sold. And it unveiled a marketing portal that advisors can use to create personalized flyers, social media posts, web content and other promotional materials for ALG products.