PANAMA CITY — After being a long, well-established player in the economy and midscale segments across South America, particularly in Brazil, Accor is now looking to grow its footprint of luxury lifestyle properties on the continent.
Thomas Dubaere, CEO of South America for Accor, said the growth opportunities in the luxury segment are driven in large part by the desirability of both resort properties and branded residences.
The geography of South America opens it up to all sorts of enticing resort experiences, he said.
"Being healthy, doing sports, going outdoors, being on the beach, going to the mountains, going skiing, nature, waterfalls — I mean, you name it. All these ingredients, they're here," he said while speaking with Hotel News Now at the SAHIC Latin American and The Caribbean conference.
He said his company is actively scouting out the best locations to develop into resorts, pointing to the two Sofitel properties in Cartagena, Colombia, the Sofitel Barú Calablanca Beach Resort and Sofitel Legend Santa Clara as the result of those efforts.
"It's like you can spend three or four days in Cartagena, then just go and relax on the beach for another five days, and you have the whole package," he said.
He said in addition to taking advantage of the natural resources of the region, an ideal location needs to "be easily accessible and have everything that can give our guests a great time during a week, two weeks or three weeks."
Dubaere said that Accor has an increasing interest in the all-inclusive segment for that reason.
He noted the strong presence of the all-inclusive resort brand Rixos in Europe, particularly in Turkey, is a good jumping off point for that, but they still need to establish a foothold in South America and beyond.
While Accor has long had a significant presence in Brazil, where it has 350 hotels, and Dubaere expects to continue to grow there. It also has growth opportunities in Colombia, Peru, Chile and Argentina.
"I know Argentina has been going through difficult times for quite a long time, but I recently spent five days in Buenos Aires and met with many, many people. I know the situation is complicated, but I do feel that city, from what I hear, has an appetite. There are a lot of empty buildings, unfortunately."
One of the biggest opportunities for Accor in the region is developing more properties with branded residential components, which Dubaere said will be a focus particularly for brands like SLS, which will soon open hotels in Uruguay and Buenos Aires.
"For an investor, that is nearly an ideal scenario," he said, noting the model guarantees cashflow during the development phase. "Because while [the investor's] got the hotel, he's got the residences, he's got the brand and he's got the service. Then when he sells the residences, it goes through SLS or Fairmont or whatever, and that's an uplift for the investor."
He said the company isn't unfamiliar with the particulars of combining residential and hotel development, as combining hotels and condos was long the norm for most projects in Brazil. That has largely faded, he said, but it helped develop a significant presence for Accor in the economy segment in that country.
"That still works because those hotels are Ibis," he said. "I wouldn't say Ibis works everywhere, but it pretty much does. It's a really good concept."