Premium all-inclusive resorts will be one of the big winners in the recovery stage from Covid, the UK boss of Club Med predicts.
UK and northern Europe managing director Estelle Giraudeau said resorts with higher price points and more space had the flexibility to adapt to new restrictions and additional requirements without deterring from the experience.
She also noted that clients of more premium resorts are likely to be less financially impacted by the Covid-pandemic.
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Speaking to Travel Weekly, Giraudeau said: “When you look at all-inclusive it’s important to differentiate between premium all-inclusive and mass market all-inclusive.
“If you take mass-market all-inclusive, then these clients might have been badly impacted during the crisis – whereas high-end clients have the same, or more, earning power.
“We set the price in order to have the higher quality of facilities, and more space. That’s something that mass-market all-inclusives might not be able to afford.
“It costs a lot of money to have more people in teams, more house-keeping, and extended hours at restaurants. Obviously it’s a cost we have factored in to be able to deliver our safety promises.
“So we are well-prepared as a premium product, but mass market all-inclusive won’t be the winner of the crisis.”
Giraudeau said Club Med’s scale also left it in a better position than smaller hotels, both in the all-inclusive and self-catering markets.
“It might seem like they are likely to be the winners,” she said. “But because of their size they are unable to deliver the same safety promises.
“We have better scale, so we don’t have to impact the clients in terms of increasing prices.”
She said the sale of Club Med will also help it in that it is open to a range of source markets that might return to international travel at different times.
“We are lucky to be a global business,” she added, noting that Club Med resorts in countries such as Brazil had already reopened. “We have examples that we will be out of this crisis.”