HOLLYWOOD, Florida — Luxury, all-inclusive resorts are not just a Caribbean fad despite much of the buzz from hotel brands being concentrated on that region.
Apple Leisure Group, and its brand management division AMResorts, has for 20 years sought to change the landscape for all-inclusive resorts, and that includes expanding the geography of its portfolio, said Javier Coll, group president for global development at AMResorts.
"The all-inclusive segment is poised for growth. We've seen that for many years now. That was one of the main reasons why, 20 years ago when we started this company, we tried to change the landscape in terms of the all-inclusive model. There was a lot of cheap product; the standards were not the best. Since then, we have had a proven record that we can deliver a luxury product," Coll said in an interview with Hotel News Now during the Caribbean Hotel & Resort Investment Summit.
"We're growing in different markets; it's not just in the specific destinations — Cancun, Punta Cana. We're growing everywhere. We have new destinations now that we're looking at like the Cayman Islands, like Colombia, like Tobago. We see massive expansion in Europe as well. It's a worldwide movement. It's not ... just happening in this part of the world, in the Caribbean; it's happening everywhere. And our goal is to keep expanding."
On Aug. 16, Hyatt Hotels Corp. announced a $2.7 billion deal to acquire Apple Leisure Group. That deal is expected to boost those expansion efforts, particularly by easing barriers to entry in new destinations, Coll said. The deal is expected to close by the end of 2021.
"That's one of the hopes, that we're going to learn, post-transaction, from people more experienced in those areas," he said.
Even before negotiations with Hyatt, there were plans to expand into new destinations, Coll said.
"Now, if anything, it's going to be easier for us," he said. "It's networking; it's a lot of things. Definitely, the future looks bright for us in terms of we're going to have more resources."
So far, the company is targeting growth in the Americas and Europe.
"Eventually, we're going to get into the Middle East, and we're going to get into Asia. That is more of a long-term plan; however, that is going to happen," Coll said. "Right now, it's just that there's so much low-hanging fruit for us in the actual destinations where we are at that we haven't spent much time working on that, but it's just a matter of time."
In two-and-a-half years, the company has added 43 hotels in Europe, specifically in Spain and in Greece.
"We want to get into Portugal, Italy, Croatia," Coll said. "We just started less than three years ago in Europe, so the potential to grow in Europe is big.
Meanwhile, Apple Leisure's Latin America portfolio also continues to grow, including recent resort signings in Saint Lucia and Los Cabos and prospects in Curacao and the Dominican Republic.
"We're going to keep growing in our core destinations just because that's where the flights are, the travelers are, the size of the market is," he said. "But we're spending to the new destinations. We're looking at the Cayman Islands; we're looking at Tobago; we're looking to expand in Curacao. We want to get into the Bahamas. There's still many islands we're not at, and we want to go to."
Coll said neither the COVID-19 pandemic nor the focus on the Hyatt deal have distracted from the company's growth strategy.
"Everything we do right now is business as usual. We never stopped working on the deals; we kept adding deals. And, you know, the way we're pitching and selling is the way we've been selling for 20 years," he said.
"The deals that we're working on, we started way before this [Hyatt] transaction, so they're not really affected by this transaction. And we had a pretty strong pipeline actually throughout the pandemic. We were able to add quite a big number of properties; actually, we were able to sign a number of properties this year. Interesting enough, we've seen a lot of Zoëtrys, which is our boutique, high-end brand."
Coll said he is confident the company will soon expand it portfolio from 100 hotels to 150.
Growth will also be concentrated on the company's core brands under the AMR Collection — which include Secrets, Dreams, Breathless and Sunscape Resorts & Spas, in addition to Zoëtry Wellness & Spa Resorts — as well as Alua Hotels & Resorts, "a four-star brand that is already very successful in Europe ... that we're going to try to roll out in the Americas," he said.