Grupo Xcaret will add new capacity in its hotels division this year
Akis Neocleous
What does Grupo Xcaret offer to tourists?
Grupo Xcaret is a group that started 35 years ago. The first focus of the group was to the theme parks, so we have parks in Quintana Roo, in Playa del Carmen, which are different types of parks, including parks with adventure parks. For example, we have the biggest zipline park in the world. Then we have parks that take experiential parks and cultural parks and then in 2017, we opened our first hotel, Xcaret Mexico. Following, three years afterwards was Xcaret Arte and while Xcaret Mexico is a family-oriented hotel, Xcaret Arte is an adult-only hotel and focusses on culture and art.
Then we opened, as well, Casa La Playa, which is a small boutique hotel, 63 rooms, ultra-luxury. All our hotels are five-star properties and all the hotels and parks are in the same area, in Playa del Carmen. So we call it Destino Xcaret or Destination Xcaret and they are built as oceanfront properties.
Visitors can indulge in variety of adventure activities
Which are your main markets currently?
Our main markets currently are the United States and Mexico, followed by other Latin American countries and then comes the rest of the world. A couple of years ago we started to receive some clients from Asia, especially from Korea and it is a market that is growing a lot and we do have penetration in Europe, and it is growing as well.
How do you intend to promote Xcaret in Asia?
Well, I think the challenge with Asia is probably the connectivity and also, I think we should be focussing a lot this year to expose ourselves now to the Asian market. However, we have seen quite a lot of new airlines coming to Mexico. We have Emirates, which is a connection directly from Middle East. But also we have Turkish Airlines, which is coming directly from Istanbul to Cancun, which is a good connection. So adding to that all the European airlines, plus the US airlines, most of them have direct flights from major cities of Europe, so I think it is a matter of letting the people know how to connect and get to start it and as soon as they are there, they will have a brilliant, fantastic experience.
Have you had any Indian footfall?
We do have Indian market, especially all those Indians that live in the United States and Canada. I see a lot of Indians coming to our hotels and I think they enjoy a lot because there is quite a lot of similarities between India and Mexico, especially with the spiciness of our food and I think that is where we need to go to focus on presenting our properties and parks to India. It is on our target list for this year.
So how will you go about doing that? Will you visit India?
We are planning to visit India, but also we are planning and we are doing agreements with partners that they can bring us, especially tour operators and travel agents that can put us on that market.
Will you be participating in shows like ATM in Dubai or the shows in India, for instance?
We have not started yet, but if we don’t do this year, definitely next year we will be doing that.
In a year, how many visitors do you get combined, all the group?
It is a lot and I cannot tell you the exact number. We have not closed the books for this year yet. However, it is a little bit of a mix because with All Pan Inclusive plan that we have, our guests can visit the parks as well and that is inclusive, which means that some of the visitors that we get from the parks are also guests from the hotel and vice versa but we do have a good penetration in the market.
Exploration of various caves and underground paths is a key activity here
Do you think food can be challenge for those Indians who are vegetarians?
We do have vegetarian restaurants, so at this time, at the complex, we have 24 restaurants. In July we are opening the extension of the hotel in Mexico, another 900 rooms so we are adding another 10 restaurants and we do have vegetarians and vegan restaurants. Moreover, the gastronomic offer that we have is so vast and big that when you visit our buffets, for example, there are so many foods that you might not have tried once and there are a lot of vegan and vegetarian offers, taking into consideration all these customers and guests that we have.
Between your theme parks, which is your largest theme park?
The largest theme park is Xcaret, which is the first one that we opened. But all of them are in the same area. They sit in 360 acres of land and we do have buses, circuit buses, every 15 minutes from the hotels going to the parks. As I said, all of them are inclusive. In Xcaret, you can go to all of the parks, which is inclusive actually, it starts from the time we get to the airport. The transportation to and from the hotel is inclusive and then all the parks plus the tours that we have, all tours are done by our teams.
Are you going to look for any kind of representation in the Indian market to promote your properties?
We have not identified anybody yet but as I said, our plan is to grow our markets, to extend our markets and that is something that we will be working for this year.