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| Travel Agent recently chatted with Steve Dumaine, president and CEO of CheapCaribbean.com. |
Travel Agent chatted with CheapCaribbean.com President and CEO Steve Dumaine and learned how having all three of Apple Leisure Group's tour operator brands on one platform will benefit CheapCaribbean, as well as agents selling Mexico, the Caribbean, Hawaii and more.
Mark Photiades, product manager for the Dominican Republic for Apple Leisure Group, told Travel Agent recently that the company's three tour operators, Travel Impressions, Apple Vacations and CheapCaribbean.com, will all be on the same platform soon.
"This allows us to be on one, unified platform and makes it easier for agents who previously had to visit three different places for all of our offerings," said Dumaine, who noted the new platform will be launched around 2016. "The key benefit for us is that this will now allow us to offer some competitive rates and a larger inventory."
Both Travel Impressions and Apple Vacations offer Hawaii. Although CheapCaribbean currently doesn't, it was about two years ago that former CEO Josh Paine told us the company, known primarily for selling the Caribbean, Mexico and parts of Latin America, was looking to add Hawaii to its portfolio. Sophia Stoller, senior director of communications for CheapCaribbean.Com, told Travel Agent Monday that those plans have since been placed on the back burner, but we will be revisited sometime in the future.
And when you look at CheapCaribbean's recent developments, its understandable how the company hasn't quite gotten around to securing Hawaii. After all, CheapCaribbean recently rolled out a newly revamped website and added such popular destinations as Costa Rica and Haiti, with Apple Leisure Group also announcing a new resort management deal in Panama. The deal introduces AMResorts’ adults-only Secrets Resorts & Spas brand to the region, and marks the eighth deal announced by the company since the beginning of the year, representing a 20 percent growth. Apple Leisure Group has doubled the number of resorts in its Central American portfolio since the beginning of 2015. Dumaine also told Travel Agent CheapCaribbean is eyeing Cartagena, Colombia.
Visit www.appleleisuregroup.com and keep visiting www.travelagentcentral.com for more updates for on ongoing coverage of DATE. Follow Travel Agent's Joe Pike on Twitter @TravelPike.