by Brian Major
Last updated: 8:35 AM ET, Mon December 4, 2023
Hyatt Hotels Corporation will enter 2024 poised to continue
expanding what company officials describe as the world’s largest all-inclusive
hotel company, a designation they say is closely linked to the work of travel
advisors.
That was the key message Hyatt executives delivered to
advisors attending the Confidant Connect Live conference at Jamaica’s Secrets
St. James Montego Bay resort this past week.
“Since the acquisition of Apple Leisure Group in 2021,
we’ve been able to build on our long history of working with travel advisors,” said
Mark Hoplamazian, Hyatt Hotels Corporation’s CEO, in a videotaped message
broadcast to the event’s advisor attendees.
The Apple Leisure acquisition has “exposed Hyatt to a
dramatically larger number of advisors,” Hoplamazian said, which led the firm
to revamp its advisor program in May.
The new Confidant Collective provides
“best-in-class” resources for travel advisors, including enhanced sales and
marketing tools, plus an education program highlighting “key differentiators and
unique selling points” of each of the company’s brands.
The program is highlighted by a website that offers diverse content, including new and informative video capabilities and opportunities to feature multiple promotions, sales, incentives and offers.
Hoplamazian said Hyatt would emphasize “the tools, education, and advocacy that help advisors continue to grow their businesses with the Inclusive Collection.”
"Indeed, the Confidant Collective was very much a strategic decision
as to how we re-align the interface we have with the advisor,” said Mark
Benson, Hyatt’s associate vice president of sales and strategy.
Rather than having “piecemeal [programs],” said Benson, the
Confidant
Collective was created to consolidate all of the company’s
advisor-focused initiatives and “[send] one central message out that this is
the hub for all of the resources [advisors] need, whether it’s training,
rewards or information, it’s all under one source,” he said.
Hyatt is also building on its 2021 acquisition of the
former Apple Leisure resort properties with last year’s launch of the Inclusive
Collection, which officials say is now the industry’s largest portfolio of
luxury all-inclusive resorts.
Company officials said that via the acquisition, Hyatt has “doubled the number of luxury rooms and tripled the number of lifestyle and resort rooms” in its global portfolio.
The Inclusive Collection now includes Hyatt Ziva and Hyatt
Zilara, Impression by Secrets, Zoetry Wellness & Spa Resorts, Secrets
Resorts and Spas, Breathless Resorts & Spas, Dreams Resorts & Spas,
Hyatt Vivid Hotels & Resorts, Alua Hotels & Resorts and Sunscape
Resorts and Spas brands.
“This past year has brought transformative growth for the
Inclusive Collection,” Hoplamazian said, “including new brands and entry into
new destinations, and 2024 will continue to bring thoughtful growth in the
Americas and Europe, further solidifying the Inclusive Collection as the
largest portfolio of luxury all-inclusive resorts in the world.”
The 10 Inclusive Collection brands are “very thoughtfully
crafted so that each brand plays a certain role in the customer’s life stage
and vacation history,” said Erica Doyne, Hyatt’s senior vice president, global marketing
and communications.
Hyatt will launch several new properties across several brands in 2024, including Secrets Tides Punta Cana (opening in January), Secrets Playa Blanca Costa Mujeres (February), Dreams Estrella del Mar Mazatlan (March), plus Dreams Grand Island in Cancun and Secrets Saint Lucia, with opening set for spring and later in 2024, respectively.
The company’s newest brand is Impressions by Secrets, a
luxury all-inclusive whose initial properties, Impressions Moxche and
Impressions Isla Mujeres, opened in December 2022 and May of this year in Mexico.
“The brand’s essence is ‘Always Yours,’ an intimate haven
for guests seeking the highest level of luxury in the all-inclusive space,”
Doyne said. “From thoughtfully designed interiors to custom amenities and distinct
cuisine, each moment is carefully curated,” she said, creating “the ultimate
expression of personal luxury.”
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