Club Med wants UK to increase bookings for sun destinations

Club Med’s new president has laid out the ambition to have “more and more UK travellers” book not only its winter snow destinations, but also its summer sun resorts.

 

As the company celebrated its 75th anniversary with loyal customers and staff in London, executives outlined their priorities as being to “keep on upscaling” the quality of offering, accelerate growth by adding new resorts and put focus back on the Mediterranean.

 

President and chief executive Stéphane Maquaire, who joined the all-inclusive brand two months ago from French supermarket chain Carrefour, told Travel Weekly: “We want to have more and more British customers in our resorts, not only for the snow, but also for the sun.”

 

He said the UK was “very significant” for Club Med as one of its top five international markets, and its second-best performer for winter resorts behind Brazil.

 

Maquaire added the operator “needed to lean on travel agents” more in the UK than other markets to achieve its growth targets, gain a larger and wider customer base and help bring in bookings as new resorts come online, such as Club Med Beach & Safari which opens in South Africa in July 2026.

 

In addition, he said agents could help “better fuel the shoulder season” and urged them to provide more feedback on destinations and services to “grow together”.

 

Read more: Last-minute bookings help drive Club Med UK half year sales

 

Around 30% of Club Med’s sales in the UK currently come from the trade, and while the majority of bookings from the UK trade are for snow destinations, bookings for sun destinations have grown by 16% so far this year, “outpacing” growth in snow destinations.

 

Club Med registered a 6% year-on-year increase in UK trade sales for sun resorts in its earnings for the first half of the year, and in the same period recorded a 32% boost in large group bookings.

 

UK managing director Nicolas Bresch added: “The target we set ourselves to reach for the UK for sun destinations is plus-15%.”

 

Bresch said the organisation was looking for new UK agency partners for its new South Africa resort, which would feature in its summer 2026 sales opening between October 14 and 17.

 

“We can’t work with 200 agencies,” he said. “We want to work with a selected handful of travel agencies with whom we can really work to train and dedicate the right time.”

 

Bresch said Club Med intended to exceed its total of 100 fam trips it had put on this year to keep it “top of mind for travel agents”.

 

He also hailed the success of its dedicated five-strong call centre team launched 18 months ago, in addition to its UK trade team of eight people.

 

Bresch highlighted preparations for peaks in the works with promises of “strong incentives” and a webinar series for agents and opportunities to book newly renovated resorts like Palmiye in Turkey and Punta Cana in the Dominican Republic.

 

On other priorities, Maquaire said there would be a focus on opening new resorts – particularly in the Mediterranean, where he felt Club Med was “now lagging behind our competition” following its “transformation” over the last 20 years leading to the closure and partial reopening of some resorts.

 

“We now have true leadership in the mountains, not just in the French Alps, but also in Hokkaido in Japan,” he said. “But as we decreased the number of resorts globally, it meant that the number of beach resorts has decreased a lot, and especially in the Mediterranean Sea.”

 

He believed Club Med had “less results than we should have” in the region where it was founded, so this would be the focus for development of future resorts.

 

Maquaire emphasised the company would maintain long-haul projects such as its developments in Borneo and South Africa, but resorts in the Mediterranean “have to be accelerated”.

 

He added that “upscaling” the existing quality of assets, services and offerings would be “absolutely key” to Club Med’s position for the premium and family market, in addition to developing international markets where they “do not have a strong customer base”, such as India, Germany, Italy and Mexico.

 

Club Med opened sales for 2026 on Tuesday with a discount of up to 20% for holidays booked by Friday (October 17). 

 

This will be the first time bookings are being taken for a new beach and safari resort in South Africa which is due to open next July.

 

This was the most requested pre-registered resort for UK customers from the sign-up phase of the sale, according to the operator.