The hotel Club Med Magna Marbella -a luxury all-inclusive that has a category of 4 tridents premium-, will receive its first clients on May 20 after the completion of the modernization work on the building, which lasted for 4 years. The resort manager of the Club Med Magna Marbella hotel, Pierre Jean Montagné, attends Málaga Hoy to explain the business perspectives that the tourist establishment manages.
-What does it mean for Club Med to reopen this emblematic hotel establishment after almost 20 years of the closure of Don Miguel?
-Being here with this opening is important, taking into account the history and the great relationship between Club Med and Spain, and the group had been trying to find the place where this reopening was going to take place for some time. Obviously, returning to Marbella is even more symbolic and important if you will, not only because of the relationship Club Med has with Mediterranean culture, but also returning to a place where there was a Club Med previously and being able to take advantage of and strengthen ties with that warmth and that great hospitality that you feel immediately when you arrive in Marbella.
-How do you face this new stage?
-Finally, the end of this terrible crisis that has affected us all in recent years is marked, and therefore, the opening to a new space and time of optimism reinforced by the large numbers of reserves that we already have when everything is Complete until the end of August. There is also optimism about the structure itself, about the beauty of the hotel and all the services it offers and about the enthusiasm that surrounds the teams that are currently there, who are enjoying being able to provide their services to clients.
-What business prospects are there for the coming years?
-The prospects for the coming years are excellent, precisely because the hotel’s infrastructure allows it to offer services to different types of clients throughout the year. In general, for families with children during school holidays and outside of this period, adults in search of that tranquility in which they can enjoy sports, and another very important section is attending to groups.
-And in comparison with other hotels of the group?
-In the next 10 years, the commercial forecasts of the Club Med Magna Marbella hotel are the best of all the group’s resorts. As for the profile of customers who have made reservations, on the one hand, there are those who know Club Med very well and want to return to Marbella or to another hotel in the group’s structure that they already know, and on the other, new clients who want to know what Club Med, Marbella and Andalusia is. With all that, we have wonderful forecasts.
-How many hotels does Club Med have around the world?
-We have almost 70 Club Med style locations around the world, it just so happens that some of them are only open during special times of the year.
-What possibilities does the Costa del Sol offer at a business level after the outbreak of Covid-19 in the tourism industry?
-The interest from the tourist point of view is that we want our clientele to not only stay inside the hotel, although there is a lot to do, but we also want them to get to know Marbella and the Costa del Sol. Also the interior, which we know that every time it is more important and here precisely there is a lot to see. And through golf, we work with 15 agencies that organize visits and currently offer around 15 excursions of different types.
-How has the Covid-19 pandemic influenced the delay of the works?
-The pandemic has had a tremendous impact, and just beforehand there was already a complicated context for a work of the magnitude that we wanted to carry out here. Everything was very accentuated, and on top of that in recent months there have been even more weaknesses with the irruption of the Russian invasion in Ukraine, which has added more difficulties to the whole issue of stockpiling and transporting material. Therefore, today it is a new page, like oxygen that re-enters here with a lot of optimism and a lot of motivation to be able to look towards a future that is very hopeful, and of course for the Club Med Magna Marbella hotel.
-What promotion and customer attraction strategies does the group consider?
-The strategy is mainly based on offering our clients more than a stay, offering this and an experience and that they want to come and discover Andalusia, gastronomy, culture and that they can do it as a family. These are basically the pillars of the customer acquisition strategy.
-Who are the main clients of Club Med Magna Marbella?
-The main customers are European, the vast majority of whom are French-speaking. Then there are some from Great Britain or northern Europe, but there are also Spanish clients who were waiting for the famous Don Miguel hotel to open again today as Club Med Magna Marbella.
-How are the reservations working?
– Everything is complete until the end of August. As of August, the reservation figures are very good and there are 60% for September, for the first fortnight of October below 50%, for the second fortnight above 70% and almost 50% for Christmas. For the Christmas holidays, many reservations are being recovered from clients who have started to go to the north of Morocco and who have decided to return, because there is also the feeling today of taking care of our carbon footprint, and thus avoiding a long plane trip At the same time, they take advantage of a southern climate and that certain exoticism that we can offer here in Andalusia.