Jaime Buxó, General Manager of Occidental Hotels & Resorts

There is an issue that has caught the eye of our readers: the capital outflow in the case of Bilbao bank, specifically Amancio Ortega through his equity fund companies, gives stockholders some wiggle room that can be covered by other companies. There are several firms interested in the group and Marriot is one of them. Is it perhaps the most likely choice?

The operation is being developed just as the company has officially explained and that process takes time. The market should not pay attention to the pieces of news that have been published, since they aren’t correct. In early 2014, we started the process to put the company in the market, there were and there are stakeholders interested in a corporate operation, but this operation won’t take another step without the right conditions.

We’ve worked to deeply restructure the company. From the financial area to the operational one, Occidental counts on an excellent staff and state-of-the-art hotels, so we’ll stay on track.

The group was facing a disinvestment and investment at the same time. The company was selling properties, or keeping the important ones, such as the flagship vessel in Spain, Miguel Angel Hotel; and some properties were sold in the Dominican Republic. Are you done with that process?

We have been applying the company’s strategic plan and its main guideline targets the specialization of Occidental Hotels & Resorts as a hotel manager in the Caribbean and Mexico, specifically All Inclusive Resorts.

That’s the reason why we’ve worked over the past years to disinvest and cut our operation in Spain, so the rental contract with Miguel Angel Hotel was close in 2013.

By doing this, the company has been definitely aimed its specialized actions at the Caribbean area and the management of Resorts and Hotels nestled in the main capitals of the region’s countries, such as Santo Domingo and Havana, thus strengthening our position and improving our results.

In this case, four hotels would be boosted if a North American company joins your stakeholder group, and you’d have to forget about Cuba. It that so?

Well, once again I have to say that it would be too risky to forecast situations that will take place if a new partner or owner joins us. We’re focused on providing the finest service to our clients, and the Tripadvisor certificates we’ve earned stand for it, improving our hotels and having our hotel chain as an excellent place where our Occidental staff members can work to be profitable.

However, there is a reality: if a North American group joins you, you can’t…

That’s not a fact and I can confirm that, so far, absolutely nobody can have for sure that that’s going to happen.
In Occidental Hotels we have never been stopped from doing any short, mid or long-term operation and the most recent example is that we have completely refurbished our Occidental El Embajador Hotel (Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic) to the amount of 6 million dollars. Another example would be the development of an important investment to improve our Occidental Grand Aruba (Aruba), Occidental Grand Xcaret (Playa del Carmen, Mexico) or Occidental Grand Punta Cana, (Bavaro, Dominican Republic).

As for Cuba, I can assert that, especially since I joined the company’s hotel section, we have invested a lot of time and professional effort to take our operations there to the next level, be profitable to our partners that own the hotels, I mean Gran Caribe and Gaviota. If a corporate operation is developed, we’ll have to analyze the steps to be taken in order to protect our partners and their market and economic interests; Occidental’s Management Council and the Head Office have I for sure.

Do you presently have any new investment in other Caribbean or American country?

We’re interested in destinations that we need to complement and position ourselves with a global presence in the Caribbean. Nowadays, I think that we are, if not the first one, one of the top three hotel companies with All Inclusive resorts based in Caribbean destinations and we are present in most of the outstanding destinations that both travel agents and travelers should visit.

What are we missing and where are we finding opportunities? Jamaica, a well-positioned destination, especially in such markets as Canada and the United States, and then we see great future in Panama that perfectly combines the experience of a beach-and-city destination: relaxing sea, shopping, culture and leisure. We’d love to enter Panama and fulfill the destination portfolio we have with Aruba, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Haiti, Mexico and Dominican Republic.
Do you see Panama as a city destination or a beach one?

I believe that we have both possibilities. In Occidental we’re centered in being experts when it comes to managing All Inclusive Resorts. We don’t put aside the management of urban hotels and we want to keep on developing it, especially the Five Star category, in those cities of high tourism value. Therefore, the client that comes to our hotels is also interested in city vacations.

We are talking about vacations, but about a different type. We think that we can have both possibilities in Panama. It would be great to have both a city hotel and a resort in some beach tourism destination.

Is that a short-term assessment or a mid-long one?

It’s a short-term appraisal, within one or two years.

Buy, construction or management?

Nowadays, Occidental features a privilege position to grow in terms of management, since we own more that 80 percent of our hotels and that’s not an usual format for hotel companies.

We have developed marketing and commercial distribution platforms, prestigious brands and highly-professional teams, which allows us to attract hotel owners who are not into the management world and find in Occidental the best solution to their service and profitability challenges. Furthermore, Occidental’s reach makes us be capable of providing customized attention.

So, I understand that this is a decisive moment. We are not used to publishing sensationalist pieces of news, we always have the information confirmed, which makes us be different from other media representatives and we respect the position of any hotel. We would be interesting in learning any other detail you could give us on this situation, for instance, Colombia as a destination...?

Colombia is a country with great tourism potential. We have an association with Estelar Hotels and we are looking forward to developing our vocational hotels with them. We’re presently in Cartagena de Indias, but we could be in other destinations within a short period of time, such as Santa Marta. The All Inclusive Resort product can grow in this destination.

We were in the Market Hub of Hotelbeds, and I understand that it is an excellent sales platform for your hotels. In terms of production volume, where does Hotelbeds stand within Occidental’s room portfolio?

Hotelbeds is one of our Top Ten clients worldwide, and I want to congratulate Hotelbeds and its staff members by mean of these lines because they are always working to improve the leadership position they already hold when it comes to internationally selling hotel rooms. They provide a distribution platform to reach out many markets that would have an excessive cost for us and Hotelbeds gives us that possibility, with professional and crystal-clear procedures.

We appreciate Hotelbeds, we feel like it is more than a distributor, a partner. I think that they really understand the hotel business, respect the processes and the way the company distributes its offers, so you can plan different strategies in various markets, and Hotelbeds’ cutting-edge distribution technology is one of the reasons.

Was that the first time you attend an edition of Market Hub?

Yes, that was my first time.

What did you make of it?

It was very professional, very dynamic, interesting and it fostered the direct contact between both Hotels and distributors. Hotelbeds offers transparency in its distribution process and it directly goes to its client that is also ours. Hotelbeds set the stage in that Market Hub for those direct contacts and that makes all of us grow.

How hotels and rooms does Occidental Hotels have?

Over Occidental Hotels & Resorts’ 30-year history, it has become a benchmark in the vacation sector, hotel level and shared time, mainly in the Caribbean region, due to the development of its own style based on the excellent services it delivers, defined as “Occidental Experience”.

Nowadays, Occidental Hotels & Resorts manages nearly 6,000 hotel rooms, in 18 hotels in 7 countries: Aruba, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Haiti, Mexico and Dominican Republic, with 4,600 employees offering services to over 600,000 guest a year, with a Holidays Club and more than 23,000 partners.

Just as Occidental Hotels & Resorts reported in early May 2013, after the process to refinance its long-term, the Company rolled out a significant investment plan by means of an intense program of reforms and improvements in its Resorts and Hotels in an effort to increase the differentiation of its product and prestige of its four brands – Royal Hideaway, Occidental Grand, Allegro and Occidental City Hotels.