Club Med: Best Leisure Experience Europe 2018
Club Med is back. Returning to its roots as the creator of the all-inclusive vacation, Club Med has embarked on a major expansion drive, adding three to five resorts to its already bulging portfolio of nearly 70 holiday resorts and destinations. The company has moved upmarket and earmarked $1.5bn to renovate existing resorts and acquire new ones.
The pioneering company, founded as a non-profit in 1950, reinvented itself by pushing its original concept to the upper echelons of the market, sourcing vacationers from a wider demographic and offering more choice in venues and activities.
In tandem with the repositioning of the brand, Club Med is also expanding its Exclusive Collection of premier resorts in some of the world’s most attractive settings. The collection includes a number of features available only to top-tier guests. This way, Club Med was able to tap into high-margin markets. Corporate profits have soared, setting a fifteen-year record whilst operating income grows at a robust 20% annual clip.
In the last 18 months, Club Med opened new resorts in China, Japan, and France. Club Med Cefalu in Sicily – an almost mythical destination and one of the company’s first resorts – has been thoroughly renovated – just opened this month as Europe’s first Club Med Exclusive Collection Resort.
These different openings symbolize 2 of the pillars of Club Med strategy:
- Global: to open 3 to more than 5 resorts per year by 2020 all around the world)
- Upscale: to open Premium or Exclusive Collection resorts and with the aim to reach 10% of Club Med capacity for Exclusive Collection by 2020.
Club Med has also a 3rd pillar which is “Happy Digital”. Club Med continue to invest in the digital to make more easy holidays of our clients & more easy life of our GOs & GEs by giving more space for happiness moments and even more value to Human.The CFI.co judging panel commends Club Med on its resilience and corporate determination to vigorously defend the turf it created. The judges agree that Club Med has a winning formula and declare the company winner of the 2018 Best Leisure Experience Europe Award.
