Q & A with John Issa, President and CEO of SuperClubs Hotels & Resorts

He’s the mastermind of one of the most successful hotel projects the Caribbean region has ever known. His confidence in the future of his company is unwavering, and so is his determination to expand to any nook and cranny of the planet where growth opportunities arise. For the time being, SuperClubs Hotels & Resorts keeps on building momentum, as its President and CEO John Issa said in this exclusive interview with Caribbean News Digital during the JAPEX 2008 tradeshow in Jamaica’s Kingston.

Q.- What concrete projects does SuperClubs have in store for Spain?
A.- We have actually a Spaniard whose residence is in Spain and is in charge of all marketing and sales there. He’s a gentleman who’s been in the industry for a long time and has worked for some of the largest hotel companies in the past. His name is Hermino Galvez. He deals with the local tour operators and travelers. There we have to fight for our share of the passengers coming to Jamaica because the large Spanish companies have taken advantage of their being Spanish to dominate the market. Many of the tour companies are owned by hotels. In fact, there should be some kind of legislation to prevent that because it restricts competition.

Q.- Is there any project to build a SuperClubs hotel in Spain?
A.- We have had discussions from time to time, but none of the projects has worked out. We have looked to the Mediterranean coast on a number of occasions. We look at the whole world for the potential, and I feel there’s a potential there. We’re fighting companies in the Middle East, in Africa, who are trying to steal out brand names. So, if people want to steal out intellectual property, so that means the product has an appeal in those markets and in those territories.

Q.- But are there any chances to open a facilities owned by your company in Spain?
A.- At the moment I wouldn’t say chances are very high because we’ve been concentrating our efforts in “España Nueva” (New Spain), in Latin America, which is much closer.

Q.- We’d like to know your opinion about the different Spanish hotel companies that have been doing business aggressively here in Jamaica. What do you make of that move by those hoteliers?
A.- We’re trying to distinguish our product from them because when you have 1,000 or 2,000 rooms, you can price very aggressively. But then that’s a different type of vacation and they of course will have to lower costs with that size. So, we’re trying to offer a more personalized holiday. In a 1,000-room hotel, the manager can’t know who his guests are. It’s impossible.

Q.- What new constructions plans does SuperClubs have either in the offing or underway?
A.- As to the new happenings, we have a couple of new Breezes under construction: the Breezes Panama, which is in Playa Blanca, just an hour and a bit west of Panama City. It’s a lovely development on a fabulous beach that will have meeting facilities, casinos and it will cater to children of all ages. It will have a lovely spa, restaurants and all the conveniences we put in the Breezes hotels. This hotel is slated to open in the middle of next year.

Also under construction in Brazil’s Rio, in a town Bouzios, is the Breezes Bouzios with a very fabulous spa. In this hotel many of the suites have their own swimming pools. There’ll be rooms and cottages on a fabulous strip of beach. This hotel will also have all the children’s facilities like mini-golf, skating rinks, archery, bowling alleys, and the like. Scheduled to break ground soon in Brazil is the Breezes Recife, in the northeast of the country, surrounded by some very spectacular natural attractions. There’ll also be the Breezes Paratee, also near Rio.

If everything goes as planned, it’ll be very likely to have all these facilities running by 2010, but more definitely by 2011. All these properties take environmental approvals and all that, but investors are there already and we’re going through the process.

Q.- Is SuperClubs determined to continue upgrading and enhancing existing facilities?
A.- Absolutely. While all this is happening, we continue to upgrade and improve our existing properties. Last year, the Breezes Bahamas went through a partial renovation process in which about two thirds of the rooms got new bathrooms, flat-screen TVs, double-glazed sliding glass doors and the like. The Breezes in the Dominican Republic also got major works in the bedrooms, and the Breezes Curacao has continued to expand and improve facilities.

Q.- We notice that you’re aggressively expanding the Breezes brand. Is that your most successful product?
A.- It’s our most universal brand because it’s medium-priced, four-star and it caters to families, singles, couples and so on.

Q.- Are there any more expansions planned for the Caribbean and what impact, if any, has the U.S. recession had on the resorts this year?
A.- There’s a lot of land in the Caribbean for expansion. However, we’ll be looking more to Jamaica for expansion and for the upgrading of existing resorts. Yet we’ll continue to look at whatever possibilities arise in the future. We haven’t abandoned the Caribbean, but we have to wait for those possibilities to realize. I might say there’re lots of pots in the fire, but none of them has come to boil yet.

As to the impact of the U.S. recession, we market globally, so in the face of the economic slowdown in the United States, the Canadian market has been coming on strong. We believe Americans will continue to travel and in view of that we need to have very attractive promotions because U.S. citizens will divert their trips to Europe to the Caribbean. The reason to believe this is the strength of the euro as stacked up against the U.S. dollar, so American travelers will choose shorter, cheaper trips to places like the Caribbean than long-haul flights to Europe and elsewhere.

Q.- There’s a number of emerging markets, like China and Russia, that are increasingly becoming outbound markets for the Caribbean. Are you prepared to receive Russian tourists, for instance, and is there anything your company needs to change to cater to those particular markets?
A.- As far as the Russian market is concerned, the reality is that the Russians have been coming for many years. We’ve been doing business in Russia for five to seven years now and we’ve had large groups of Russians that have been coming in aboard their own planes. We have all noticed that Russians have money because if you take a closer look at the Forbes magazine list of billionaires worldwide, there are lots of Russians among the top 20.

As to the Chinese market, Chinese tourists have been already coming to Jamaica on trips sponsored by the Chinese government in collaboration with the Jamaican government. These people come looking for culture and history, not exactly a sun-and-beach vacation, not at this moment. But when you start scratching the surface of what might be a powerhouse for tourism in the future, it’s just clear that the pioneers are venturing away from the more traditional tourism destinations, such as Europe and the Middle East. Many of the Chinese that are coming this way have already explored Europe and the Far East and Australia.

In an effort to try to accommodate some of their tastes, you know the Chinese taste is quite different to the kind of cuisine we’re accustomed to, but we’ll do just what we’ve done with the Japanese: make sure that we have Japanese food for breakfast, make sure that we have Japanese speakers in the resort because many of these people don’t speak English. We just make sure that we make them feel at home.