Q & A with Paul Pennicook, President of International Lifestyle Inc., SuperClubs

SuperClubs, one of the most successful hotel brands in the Caribbean with a 30-year-plus experience in the industry, is defying the economic uncertainty with innovative ideas and far more expansion in the region and beyond. Quite recently the company tapped Paul Pennicook, a veteran of Air Jamaica and former Tourism Director for Jamaica, as president of International Lifestyle –SuperClubs’ worldwide representative. In this exclusive interview with Caribbean News Digital, Mr. Pennicook talks about the challenges on the road ahead for his company and the plans in store for the near future.

Q- Tell us briefly about your life and how you started in the travel and tourism industry?
A- As you mentioned, I had been at SuperClubs before. I’m really a hotelier and I used to manage hotels and I wasn’t at SuperClubs until the early 90s, then I left and did some other things in between working with hotel chains here and there, including Couples, which I ran for seven years. Then I became Director of Tourism for Jamaica in 2003. I enjoyed doing that for three years, being in charge of tourism for the destination.

Then I returned to the semi private sector in 2006 when I joined Air Jamaica as Senior Vice President for Marketing and, last year, on October, I returned to SuperClubs where I’m now president of International Lifestyle, which is the worldwide representative of SuperClubs resorts. I handle sales and marketing for SuperClubs resorts worldwide, except for Cuba. How was it returning to SuperClubs resorts? I said as come back home. I grew up, so to speak, with the company, I understand the company very well and I’m very proud of coming back to marketing the resorts.

The SuperClubs is responsible for having introduced the totally all inclusive resorts concept to Jamaica and indeed to the world. It’s really a joy to be back with that company and to be promoting these resorts around the world. Of course we have a number of locations now and, when I was in the company before, we had Jamaica and the Bahamas. We now have Jamaica, the Bahamas, Curacao, Brazil, and, of course, we will be in Panama in August of this year.

So I’m very excited about being back with SuperClubs and I’m looking forward to a tremendous future years to go. I should mention that one of the major changes that is taking place this year after my return is that we’re doing a rebranding of SuperClubs where come November 1st, we will have a master brand where just about everything will be Breezes resorts. And so, Grand Lido Negril will become Breezes Grand Negril. Grand Lido Braco will become Breezes Rio Bueno, Starfish Trelawny will become Breezes Trelawny; and of course in the continent we’ll be opening the Breezes Bouzio in Brazil in the fall and Breezes Panama in August.

This rebranding is not only an expansion of the Breezes brand, but also an innovation of the Breezes brand. That’s something that we are very set about and the change will take place on November 1st. We are maintaining the Hedonism II resorts, and of course we have Rooms, which are affiliated to SuperClubs, and we have the Rooms Ocho Rios and the Rooms Negril.

Q- Does this mean there’ll be some changes in the resorts?
It is true that some minor inclusion in the Grand Leader product will no longer be there. For example, we will no longer include manicure and pedicure, we will no longer include valet, laundry and dry cleaning, we will no longer have 24-hour room service; we will have room service, but not 24 hours. The number of restaurants will remain the same and the number of bars will remain the same, and the name of accommodations will be the same.

Q.- Are you also planning to renovate your Rooms brand?
A.- No, we’re not completely renovating Rooms.

Q- What is the focus of your promotion and marketing plan on the Spanish market, the Russian market and others in Europe? And, what about China?
A- We’re doing quite well currently on continental European, in Germany, Italy, Spain and Portugal. We are doing a little bit of business out of Russia and Poland, and we are looking to increase that. In the case of China, we have attended a couple of conventions there and we are a little bit of working the market, but we realize that China is going take some more time. I should not leave out the UK. We’re doing very well with the United Kingdom.

Q- Do you believe you could change the advertising image of SuperClubs as it is now for the American market and adapt it to the requirements of the European market, like in the case of Spain, for instance?
A- We have adjusted some of that. For example, we print the Breezes brochure for this market over here and we make certain adjustments to accommodate the European market. So, we do realize that there have to be some differences between marketing in the United States and marketing in Europe and we are taking that into consideration.

Q- How much money do you spend in the marketing plan for continents, breaking it down for Europe, North America, South America?
R- If you’re talking straight marketing for the resorts, it’s globally 4 to 5 million dollars a year.

Q- Would you like to add anything else about your work or about the company?
A- Just to say that we realize at SuperClubs, that there is a lot of competition and that the market is very difficult right now. However, we’re confident that if we continue to deliver quality products and quality services consistently in all our resorts, we will not only retain, but we will increase our market share.

Q- What is the situation of Hedonism and its position around the world?
A- Hedonism is a lifestyle resort, it’s unbridled fun and entertainment, and we know there is a niche market that is very loyal to Hedonism and that’s not only from the United States, but from around the world. We will continue to put Hedonism at that special niche of hedonistic fun.