Pleasant Holidays' CEO Talks Dominican Republic Safety, Hot New Destinations and More

When the wave of exaggerated reports involving the cause of death of American tourists in the Dominican Republic hit its peak earlier this year, members of tour operator Pleasant Holidays were mulling over whether they should move their Elite Experience event, which attracted 50 travel agents and was set for Uvero Alto, Dominican Republic, to a new destination.

But it didn't take Jack E. Richards, the company's president and CEO, long to decide.

"To be candid, there wasn't even a second thought," Richards told TravelPulse during a sitdown at the Excellence El Carmen hotel. "We got a lot of feedback from people saying we shouldn't go there because of concerns with safety and alcohol, but right at the time we issued the invitations, the United States' FBI's toxicology reports came out and said these people's deaths are consistent with natural causes. But we were going to do it anyway.

"If we pulled out, what kind of a signal would that send to travel agents, travel partners? It would send the wrong message to the wrong people. It really wasn't a difficult decision at the end of the day."

TravelPulse chatted with Richards on Sunday about the current situation in the D.R., as well as other hot Pleasant Holidays news from around the world.

Here's what he had to say.

TravelPulse (TP): So, how did you make up your mind to come to the D.R. for the Elite Experience event and what are you doing to secure bookings to the D.R.?

Jack E. Richards (JR): We look into the facts. We don't pay much attention to the news until the facts come out. We are talking to government partners, tourism partners. In fact, we just had a group of 300 people there about a month after the first incident happened (a woman was allegedly beaten by a staff member of the hotel she was staying at). It took us a good 10 days to convince they to come here and they did.

We met with the [Majestic Elegance Punta Cana] and said here are the conditions that need to be met for them to come. We need additional security guards, we need to see all of the inspection reports that cover all the alcohol requirements and we need more security cameras. They met all of our requests. The group came and had a great time. The hotel even offered the group a $1,400 trip credit if they wanted to go somewhere else. Very few took advantage. Less than 10 took advantage.

TP: Why do you think this is the perfect time to visit the D.R.?

JR: We are counseling our [business development managers] and telling them there is no safer time to come to the D.R. because of enhanced security. All eyes are the destination. You will see a winter with some of the best value any destination in the Caribbean has ever offered.

TP: How have the erroneous news reports hurt business to the D.R. for Pleasant Holidays?

JR: We are unfortunately forecasting the D.R. to be down for 2020. We don't see it recovering for the first quarter at all. We are seeing a clear shift to Jamaica, Cancun, the Riviera Maya and Aruba. And those are people who rerouted from the D.R, but also the Bahamas because there are some travelers who still think the entire island was destroyed by the hurricane when it wasn't.

We are at double-digit growths already next year for almost all other [Caribbean] destinations, but the D.R., our single largest destination in the Caribbean, is down. So, 2020 is going to be a strong year for the Caribbean, but we don't believe the D.R. is going to share that strong demand.

We look at each national account of all our major [consortia] partners from Signature [Travel Network, Inc.] to Virtuoso to Ensemble [Travel Group] to American Express, you name it, and everybody is down in the D.R. It is not just one group.

TP: So, tell us about Pleasant Holidays' Asia offerings?

JR: So, we have Japan, Hong Kong, Singapore, Thailand,Vietnam and Cambodia. Now, one of the keys to this is I hired someone to be a Tokyo representative. She was with Leading Hotels of the World for many years. She works out of her home office in L.A., so she can get back and forth to Tokyo easily. Our first year of selling Asia [in 2018], we blew through our budgets. We are now looking at a 439 percent growth in Asia sales for 2020, compared to 2019.

As we speak, our team is in China. We are building out and we will launch in the third quarter of 2020. That is a massive project. We anticipate bringing on anywhere from 100 to 300 hotels in China. That's going to be very big.

TP: Is Hong Kong business suffering because of the intense protests that are ongoing there?

JR: Hong Kong is bad right now. We kind of pulled our marketing for Hong Kong for the time being until things stabilize there. But demand to Japan remains very Strong.

TP: What are Pleasant Holiday's Europe offerings looking like lately?

JR: In Europe, we are going to focus on building that product for the next five years. We launched Belgium in July. In the first quarter of 2020, we are adding Croatia, Montenegro and also adding cruises to Croatia. We are building our France product by adding Leon and Marseille.

In England, we are going into Manchester and Liverpool. Over the next five years, we are going to continue to expand Europe to the point where Europe may one day be bigger than Hawaii for us.

TP: How has Hawaii business been for Pleasant Holidays?

JR: 2019 was a very different year for us in Hawaii because of lingering effects of the volcano that spilled into the season. It didn't recover in 2019 but is up double digits for 2020.

TP: Tell us about air capacity to Europe and, going back to the D.R, does that destination have a cause for concern when it comes to air capacity?

JR: We moderate the air seat capacity to Europe. Let me tell you two things we are concerned with. There is some lift being pulled out of the Dominican Republic, which is not good for the destination. In Europe, we are tracking a large numbers of seats that will be added next year. We think Europe is going to have a blockbuster year. We are seeing airlines like American [Airlines], Delta [Air Lines], Unite Airlines, all coming on.

TP: Do you think flights to the D.R. will eventually be drastically reduced by U.S. carriers?

JR: We are watching it closely because it's a matter of time. If the passenger count is down, [airlines] are going to redeploy their assets. They are not going to run empty flights.

TP: What destinations are hot for you at the moment?

JR: Hawaii is back. Mexico is back. Europe is booming and I think Jamaica and Asia are the destinations of the future. We will spend a lot of time investing in Asia and Europe. We expect major growth out of those destinations over the next five years.

TP: What Caribbean destination is expecting to do really well for Pleasant Holidays in the foreseeable future?

JR: One of our big stories is our expansion in Jamaica. In September of this year, we added 18 resorts in Jamaica. We picked up all the Couples Resorts in Jamaica, all of the Palladium [Hotels &] Resorts, all of the Secrets [Resorts & Spas] and other AMResorts in Jamaica. We picked up the Melia [Braco Village] and Holiday Inn [Resort Montego Bay All-Inclusive]. We have one of the most comprehensive Jamaica programs out there. Some operators do not to business with Sandals [Resorts], Beaches [Resorts], Playa [Hotels & Resorts]. We do business with all of them.

TP: Will Pleasant Holidays ever revisit plans to expand to Cuba?

JR: If we can't have consistency, we are not interested. Jeffrey Lee (the product director for Pleasant Holidays) went down there. We were ready to do FITs and groups. We are ready to go to Cuba the moment it opens up to Americans without any restrictions. We don't want to see any forms to fill, that you're going to meet with some medical student, blah, blah, blah. We will add Cuba to our Caribbean portfolio the second there is zero restrictions.

TP: So, can you tell our readers about the Elite Experience event? How do travel agents get invited?

JR: The minimal sales number to qualify is very high (about $250,000 in annual Pleasant Holidays sales). I told an agent that and she said, 'Well I hope I can qualify for next year. I just sold a group with Sandals [Resorts] in St. Lucia for $450,000.' I said, 'Yep, that should get you in.'

But the requirements vary by region. If we did it by sales data, it would be everyone in Los Angeles every year. We look at several things like sales growth, long-term partnerships and what they are doing to grow the business. I tell people one of the ways to get here quickly is by just selling groups and being loyal to the Pleasant Holidays brand.

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