Juan Carlos Fernandez Friera, International Trade Director of Decameron Hotels

Juan Carlos Fernandez Friera, International Trade Director of Decameron Hotels
By Jose Carlos de Santiago

Hard Rock Megapolis Panama is to be Decameron hotel chain’s upcoming and largest opening in 2012, this time in collaboration with the U.S.-based Hard Rock group. We had a long talk with its international trade director on this interesting project and the company’s policy of continuing its expansion in the Americas in barely known destinations.

How many hotels does Decameron currently operate all over the world?
32 all in all, three of which are nestled in Africa, specifically in Morocco, Cape Verde and Senegal, and the rest are located in America, where we have facilities in Mexico’s Pacific coast, in El Salvador, Panama, Colombia, including San Andres island; as well as Peru and Ecuador, and Jamaica in the Caribbean. We are present in those countries.

How many rooms do they add up?
Right now, adding up the new projects, we count on almost 9,000 rooms.

You are about to inaugurate one hotel in Panama, and there’s been a lot of buzzing going on about it …
Yes, the Hard Rock Megapolis Panama with 1,500, to be opened in January 2012. It’s going to be a very interesting and entertaining hotel due to the combination of city hotel regimes and an all-inclusive plan in certain floors of the facility.

Is that hotel going to own a casino?
The hotel counts on Cirsa casino, right across the street, so we could say that it will have a casino, plus the convention center, Spa and several swimming pools. It’s going to be a cutting-edge project, with Hard Rock design, following the line developed by that group in recent years; up-to-date hotels, such as Punta Cana, and a similar project is to be opened at Riviera Maya, in Mexico, also in 2012.

Does the project entail any incidence in the shopping center located next to the hotel?
Of course, there’s direct access to the shopping center and the casino; and that’s the reason why the name Megapolis fits so well.

What’s going to be your expansion policy in terms of markets?
Well, we’re looking forward to becoming more internationally known, because Decameron is very acclaimed in national markets due to its model commercial structure, which is pretty-well organized and distributed in that sense.

As for Colombia, for instance, we count on 23 selling offices all over the country, plus several call centers; in Panama we also possess a huge call center for direct sales, we have selling offices in El Salvador, Costa Rica, Guatemala, in Mexican cities such as the Federal District or Guadalajara; in Venezuela, Peru, Ecuador, Chile and Argentina, so Decameron has a strong presence in Latin America.

And of course, we fill up our hotels with an own business source, but we’re presently looking for more, some of the up and coming international markets that we hadn’t considered so far. Likewise, we should say that we hadn’t obtained the space to develop a more internationally-acclaimed hotel chain, but Canada and the French market, where we have been strongly positioned since the very beginning.

We are currently aiming at markets such as the US, specifically the South of Florida, Orlando, which are interesting for Jamaica, Panama and Colombia.

We are also trying to enter Brazil; we have recently carried out commercial travels and presentations in Sao Paolo, attended ABAV Fair and will be participating in the fair at Gramado city.

Likewise, we are interested in markets from Eastern Europe and Russia, where we have recently been rendering activities and attending events in order to shed light on our brand and destinations. We are looking forward to maintaining a firm strategy focused on developing these outbound markets, which are currently going through an interesting expansion.

We are also thinking on making further incursions in the Caribbean, we don’t take our eyes out of destinations such as the Dominican Republic or Riviera Maya, and Jamaica, of course, where we have two hotels, or San Andres Island with the strong presence of our 6 hotels; and that’s a glimpse of our internationalization policy.

The opening of Hard Rock in Panama is the most important one for you in 2012, isn’t it?
It is indeed.

Are you also planning to have a stronger presence on the Internet?
Yes sir, that’s one of the ongoing projects right now. Improving our current website actual and, afterwards, creating a special website for each country, with a specific offer aimed at each market.

Will you sign preferential deals with tour operators selling via Internet?
Well, respecting the rules of electronic market, just as any hotelier, we’re already working with Expedia and Booking.com; we’re beginning to work with HotelBeds, among others. Definitively, we’re spreading our operation through the electronic world.

Actually, I was talking about smaller and more qualified tour operators …
Of course, we are. We’re also working to improve and expand our focus in that direction.

What would be the characteristics of the customers you’re looking for? Are you only focused on trade or are you looking for end consumers in the fairs?
Well, regarding to international fairs, when it comes to penetrating new markets, we’re looking for deals with tour operators in the most classic way, because it’s the basic way of entering a market, looking for support and creating media plans along with those with solid presence in those markets. We chose this strategy, instead of directly participating in expensive marketing campaigns with huge and hard-to-control budgets.

However, as I said, we’re very active in our markets and continuously carry out marketing campaigns aimed at the end consumer and generating sales through travel agencies and our call centers, and that’s the case of Latin America.

How many hotels do you have in Panama?
In Panama, we have one beach hotel, at Playa Blanca, with 1,200 rooms, golf course, resort type and all inclusive category; and Radisson Decapolis Hotel, next to the new Hard Rock project, so we count on one Megapolis project, which includes the whole area of Decameron with both hotels.

Who are the owners of Decameron?
Decameron development model is very diverse; we have hotels in terms of property, rent, management, in some cases there are partnerships and local partners, among other alternatives. But Decameron was born in Colombia, and our chairman and one of the main stockholders, Lucio Garcia, is Argentinean.

You don’t have any airline and you’ve never worked with air transportation …
We don’t count on any airline, but we execute our own charter operation. For instance, we organize charters from Ecuador to Jamaica, to Panama; or from Colombia to San Andres, so we rely on the mechanisms to prepare and organize charters in order to fill our hotels up.

What does Argentina mean to you?
It’s a very important South market; that country’s commercial structure is stable, and Argentineans’ favorite destination for Decameron is San Andres Island, where we possess six hotels. They also travel to Panama, and Colombia is presently emerging as destination.

On the other hand, Brazil, as I previously commented, is among our priorities as outbound market. We have begun to work there and, along with the brand-new Panama project, we think that Brazil can be a significant market for that hotel.

What is the next destination to be opened as a hotel?
We have Peru as the new destination. We’re building there the first all-inclusive at the beach, in the south area of the country; it’s a Royal Decameron to be inaugurated in March. It’s a new Decameron destination.

Are you planning to reach out to the Canadian market with any charter or thru partnerships with any tour operator?
Canada is one of the most important markets for Decameron. We’ve grown along with Canada, counting on the support of a tour operator from that country, Transat, which has been one of the friend companies that has historically help us to grow up.

What do you make of the vertical integration started by German tour operators, buying hotels and opening hotel lines?
Well, that’s part of the globalization, according to which we should all jump on the bandwagon and try to push it forward, but it’s obviously a competitive factor to be concerned about.
 
The joining of Aimer Shop to the luxury segment, for example, damaged other small hotels in that segment. What do you think is going to happen with the incursion of TUI in the general segment?
Evidently, small hotels are facing hard times if they don’t count on a differentiated product. Those offering more of the same products can’t face bigger hotels, but through the prices, so I suggest them to differentiate their product, look out for new concepts, otherwise it won’t be easy for them in destinations characterized by low demand.

Our policy in Decameron is growing up in new destinations where there are none of the big hotel chains, such as El Salvador, Panama, Ecuador, Peru, or Cartagena de Indias, in Colombia, where we have a quite interesting project on Baru island. It’s a sort of line to be different from these big groups, which are the battle horse of any hotelier.