All week we're running a special report on what agents can expect from the travel industry in 2015. Here's our look at the industry as a whole, and here is a series of tips on how to be proactive with clients heading into the New Year.
Four out of 10 travelers journeyed outside the continental U.S. during the past two years, and better than one in 10 of those visited the Caribbean, according to the MMGY Global’s 2014 Portrait of American Travelers. The most popular destinations in that region were the Bahamas and Puerto Rico. As far as age demographics go, the region has universal appeal, with the Portrait showing that Millennials and Gen-Xers favor it only slightly more than their boomer and mature counterparts do. To keep these clients coming to the islands, 2015 will see new hotels, more flights and other improvements.
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| Kura Hulanda Village & Spa is one of Curacao’s many gay-friendly resorts. |
Hotel Buzz: Two hotels developments sure to garner major interest among Caribbean specialists in 2015 are Baha Mar in The Bahamas and the reopening of Sandals Barbados.
Baha Mar, the much-anticipated $3.5 billion mega-resort, began preview openings in December 2014 and will continue them through spring 2015, with a grand opening celebration planned for late spring. During the preview period, Baha Mar representatives will invite certain parties such as media and travel partners to check out the resort.
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| The opening of the revamped Condado Vanderbilt is a highly anticipated event in Puerto Rico. |
Baha Mar will have 2,000 rooms in four branded hotels: one from Rosewood Hotels & Resorts, one from Mondrian, one from Hyatt Hotels and Resorts and The Baha Mar Casino & Hotel, the resort’s centerpiece. An existing property, The Melia, is undergoing renovations and upon completion will be renamed Melia at Baha Mar and debut simultaneously with the rest of the resort. It will be the only all-inclusive property there.
Following a brief closure to undertake a wide-ranging enhancement program, Sandals Barbados will reopen on January 28. Bookings are being accepted for stays through December 2016, with rates starting at $659 per person, per night. Sandals Barbados offers 280 luxury accommodations that range from opulent beachfront butler suites to new swim-up river suites in the resort’s tropical garden.
In Puerto Rico, the grand opening of the much-anticipated Condado Vanderbilt in San Juan, which is slated for January 31, is generating some good buzz. The hotel began accepting reservations earlier this month.
Emerging Islands: In September, Travel Agent was among media who attended a breakfast hosted by Gaston Browne, prime minister for Antigua and Barbuda, and learned of plans to build new hotels in Barbuda. Speaking to us, Browne also said that eight cruise-ship calls will be made in Barbuda this year, the most it has ever received.
We also chatted with Beverly Nicholson-Doty, commissioner of the U.S. Virgin Islands (U.S.V.I.) Department of Tourism, earlier this year and learned that the destination’s little known Water Island is looking to fully open up to tourism by adding its first hotel since 1989. Doty expects groundbreaking of the hotel to be at least two years away. Water Island Development Company has been selected as the developer to advance a first-rate resort and hotel project on the isle.
Tobago, a relatively undiscovered Caribbean island just southwest of Barbados, could soon become the next big destination in the Caribbean as L’Anse Fourmi Estate goes on the market. Trinidad and Tobago authorities have granted planning permission for a luxury leisure resort on the estate on the island’s northeast coast.
After laying low for years, Guadeloupe is beginning to market heavily to U.S. tourists, and agents should start preparing for a rush to this French-Caribbean paradise. Guadeloupe is an archipelago of five islands, two (Basse-Terre and Grande-Terre) connected by roads and three outlining islands (Marie Galante, Les Saintes and La Désirade), the farthest being 45 minutes away, that are connected by efficient inter-island ferry services, making it an attractive island-hopping destination.
Saba’s first-ever spa is expected to make the tiny island a popular tourism destination in the years ahead. The island’s intimate 12-suite Queen’s Gardens Resort recently announced the opening of the new Frangipani Spa. The first and only spa on Saba will feature its own line of body products called Frangipani, produced on nearby St. Maarten by SXM Nectar, exclusively for the spa, using indigenous, organic ingredients.
Saba, a 12-minute flight from St. Maarten via a De Havilland Twin Otter, offers an exceptional range of hiking opportunities with seven eco-systems, a tropical rainforest, volcanic peaks and remote backcountry villages, once the domain of pirates. It is also a scuba diver’s paradise and is well-suited for destination weddings (including same-sex unions) and honeymoons.
Most Influential Flights: Expect new airlift to immensely help increase arrivals to both Barbados and Curacao, another island poised to take a giant tourism step forward in the near future. In June, the Barbados Tourism Authority (BTA) and Delta announced a collaboration on new nonstop service this winter to the Barbados from both New York and Atlanta.
The new flights began December 4. They are twice weekly between Grantley Adams International Airport in Bridgetown and both New York’s JFK and Atlanta’s Hartsfield-Jackson International, where connections to cities across the U.S. are available. The JFK flights are Delta’s first-ever nonstops from the Big Apple to Barbados.
Flights operate Thursdays and Saturdays, and two flights start simultaneously, one from New York into Barbados and then onto Atlanta; and then a second one originating in Atlanta, traveling to Barbados and on to New York.
In July, JetBlue Airways announced its new twice-weekly non-stop service from New York to Curacao. Beginning December 2, JetBlue became the only airline to offer non-stop flights from New York to Curacao. This is especially welcome news to your gay clients. The island’s European influence and the open, friendly nature of its people, along with events such as Gay Pride Week and South Caribbean Pride Week, have put the island on the frontline of LGBT tourism in the Caribbean. Although same-sex marriage is not currently performed under the law in Curacao, it is recognized if performed in another country.