Q & A with Jose Carlos de Santiago, President and Editor-in-Chief of the Excelencias Group

by Frank Perez Alvarez

As maker of major publishing and business projects in Cuba, the Caribbean and the Americas, the Excelencias Group’s President, CEO and Editor-in-Chief says his company is turning its first decade fully committed with the promotion of tourism, cultural values and full-fledged integration across the entire region.

Q.- You’ve juggled many hats in the Spanish entrepreneurial realm, yet I wonder how you got your big break in the publishing world.
A.- My start in the publishing world, as you put it, goes a long way back. In 1975, I began working for a publishing company in my country, making car tryouts. I used to write some articles and little by little I understood it was possible to do certain things on your own, like launching small-scale publishing projects and things like that. The magazine publisher and I joined hands and launched the Playamar magazine, this one entirely devoted to nautical activities, and that’s how my publishing career got going, so to speak.

In 1987, after leaving the Catolica Publishing Co. in Spain –I moved up the ladder to become the company’s communications manager- I joined the Mil Seis publishing group, a company with a far more aggressive and hands-on policy. But my joining that group pursued the objective of making my own publishing company in a bid to develop communication and publicity projects of my own.

Following a brief stint with Ford Motors Co. all across Spain, I continued working for other multinational companies like American Express, Banco Exterior de España, Autopistas Las Zaragonesas, the Cirza publishing group, among other interesting projects. Then in 1997 I managed to launch the Caribbean Tourist Excellences project, whose tenth anniversary we’re celebrating this year.

Q.- What made you pick the Caribbean and the Americas?
A.- It was a lucky strike, I must say. We were looking for new publishing products, new market niches. Then I traveled to Cuba through a press trip tailor-made for the Excelencias Tremus publicity company. I fell head over heels in love with this island at first sight and I knew it was for sure one of the world’s most paradisiacal travel destinations, yet underdeveloped and unpublicized. The country was going through tremendous hardships and needed badly to get a foot in the doorsteps of travel and tourism.

That’s how I settled down in the Caribbean, especially in Cuba, probably the newest and most promising travel destination in the Caribbean at the time. It was on this island nation where we decided to put our efforts together and get this project going.

Q.- How did Caribbean Tourist Excellences, the caribeinsider.com portal and the group’s online newsletters get cracking?
A.- Many people in the Caribbean thought that placing ads in English-speaking news media was the right was to reach out to all markets in the region. But that was not possible, so we put out the Caribbean Tourist Excellences magazine in both English and Spanish. Later on, we decided to publish magazines in each and every language of the region’s premiere outbound markets in Europe.

The advance of digital communications made launch the caribeinsider.com portal back in 1997 in an effort to comprise the whole region, both the islands and the mainland territories bathed by the Caribbean Sea. In order to meet the informative needs of the region and the rest of Latin America, we unveiled new online projects like Caribbean News Digital, Trends & Markets, and Excelencias de la Formacion.

Q.- What about the company’s distribution system? How does it work?
A.- From the very beginning, the company didn’t bank on traditional distribution channels used by Spanish publications. It was impossible for a small publishing company at that time to try to be up to par with big-time publishers in newsstands and kiosks. That was going to be an uphill battle. That’s why we tried out a direct delivery system through email marketing that has eventually given us a tremendous success in the U.S. market and a firm toehold in Europe.

However, that was not good enough. We needed to reach out to people within those companies that had pinned their trust in us, people from cruise companies, airlines, hotel chains, travel agencies and tour operators with a close eye on the Caribbean and the Americas. So, that was just another promotional onslaught we embarked on and we’re still working on.

Q.- Your company has an interest in attending tourism fairs and tradeshows all around the world. Why?
A.- I must say that’s just another feather we’ve put in our hat. From the word go our company has been attending all major tourism events around the world, like the Powwow in the U.S., or Europe’s flagship fairs like Berlin’s ITB, Spain’s FITUR or the World Travel Market in London, without making a short shrift of other tradeshows like Lisbon’s BTL or Milan’s BIT. We have managed to distribute somewhere between 10,000 and 20,000 copies of our magazines and publications in each and every edition of those fairs and events.

Thanks to the support provided by the Caribbean Tourism Organization (CTO), we’ve been able to reach out to many places that still remain locked for many others. We’ve attended all fairs organized by the Caribbean Hotel Association (CHA), and that has helped us get a better perspective and a stronger grip of the market over the past ten years, and that’s something only a handful of news media organizations in the world has managed to do.

We’ve also attended fairs in Central America, like CATA, and we’ve gone the extra mile to promote the whole region in the Spanish markets, as well as in the rest of Europe. We’ve gone out to Mexico’s World Tourism Exposition, and to the yearly fairs and shows organized in Canada, Venezuela and Brazil. We also draw a bead on other events held in Curacao and Aruba, or Jamaica’s JAPEX and the Dominican Republic’s DATE.

Q.- Are there other means in which your publications circulate?
A.- Major airlines have put our products in motion in the form of in-flight reading for tourists and business travelers. Air Madrid was the first carrier to do that. Today, our publications are aboard all flights by COPA, TACA, Iberia, Cubana de Aviacion, Mexicana de Aviacion and Aerocaribbean.

Q.- What new products is the Excelencias Group taking on in its tenth birthday?
A.- We’re working on the Cuba Special Issue, a magazine dealing with the island nation’s culture, tourism, health and relaxation. We’re putting out special issues on Panama and the Dominican Republic, two emerging countries that are going stronger as travel destinations in the Caribbean region. We also published a special magazine in English and Spanish for Habanos S.A., the premium cigar marketing company that distributes our magazines in all Habano Houses around the globe.

We continue working on relatively new products, like Motor Excellences and Gourmet Excellences, and we won’t give up on Travel Excellences, a supplement to the Caribbean Tourist Excellences magazine that has generated a lot of interest in European outbound markets. Now this magazine will soon be reaching out to Germany, Austria and Netherlands, as well as Spain, Bulgaria, Italy, France, UK and the U.S.

Q.- What plans do you have in store to mark the Excelencias group’s tenth anniversary?
A.- We have a far-reaching program in motion and we’re counting on the help of thousands of contributors and friends from Cuba, the Caribbean, the Americas and the rest of the world. The celebration kicked off last year with the presentation of the 2006 Tourist Excellence Awards, and we’re now carrying on with a number of contests on photography, journalism, design, fine arts and children’s painting, all this much in collaboration with UNESCO. There’ll be artwork exhibits, concerts, book presentations, fashion shows and a cultural gala.

Q.- Any special message to the readers?
A.- The Excelencias Group is turning its first decade of existence. Its strengthening and expansion are right now in full swing because we remain committed to our readers, customers and the peoples of Cuba, the Caribbean and the Americas. We’re committed to the advance and promotion of tourism, cultural values and the full-fledged integration of the entire region. Our strength lies in the experience, expertise, talent and professionalism of a magnificent staff that has made this project a dream come true. This is our small and humble contribution to the world of communications.