Daniel Lozano & Frank Corzo on the Future of Karisma’s Nickelodeon Resorts

When it comes to family-friendly travel, the Nickelodeon Hotels & Resorts stand unchallenged. 

Offering the luxury of a beach hotel, coupled with beloved icons like Nick slime, Paw Patrol, and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (TMNT), these resorts offer a unique vacation experience that appeals to kids—and kids at heart.

Karisma Hotels & Resorts and Paramount Global opened Nickelodeon Hotels & Resorts Punta Cana in 2016, followed by Riviera Maya in 2021. This collaboration is an upscale approach to branded family entertainment: The Karisma properties are five-star destinations that promise gourmet food, beautiful beaches, and immersive theming.  

Nickelodeon Hotels & Resorts Punta Cana is currently undergoing renovations in 2024, which will add two new spaces for guests: The Sweetery, a dessert-themed café, and The Snick, a late-night lounge area. 

This isn’t the only big change happening at the resort in 2024.

Karisma Agent Force
Karisma will be launching a new program for travel advisors, called Karisma Agent Force.

Currently, the Gourmet Inclusive Vacation Consultant (GIVC) program features benefits to travel professionals, like familiarization trips, training, and—for Nickelodeon specialists—Slime Time coupons for guests. This new Karisma-wide program will expand on what’s already being offered, providing more incentives for advisors and more opportunities to see the resort.

“Travel advisors are the pinnacle of our business,” Frank Corzo, Karisma’s vice president of sales, told TMR. “This company was built on relationships with travel agents. We don’t want to steer away from that—on the contrary, we want to make that stronger.”

With the enhanced training, Corzo hopes to match advisors with Karisma Business Development Managers (BDM) who can act as mentors, training them on the product and providing an extra layer of support.

“We have to keep pushing the bar on what we can do for training,” said Corzo. “It’s very important to get people on site. The experience that they have when they visit the hotels transforms their vision of what the vacation experience can be like for their customers.”

Corzo is also hoping to change the FAM experience, both by letting advisors see more behind-the-scenes processes and also providing more time to enjoy the resort as a vacationer. “I think the best way for an agent to learn the product is to experience the product as a vacation,” he said.

Currently, Karisma is still finetuning the details of the new program, but it is expected to launch in the coming months.

Attracting young families
With enduring franchises like SpongeBob SquarePants (25 years) and TMNT (40 years), Nickelodeon has a brand portfolio that can draw in fans from various age groups. 

“We have millennials. We have multigenerational families of all ages,” said Corzo. “It’s a brand for everyone, really—it depends on what you want for your vacation experience.”   

While the properties promise fun for all ages, the Nickelodeon resorts are uniquely positioned to cater to families with young kids, thanks to the brand power of Paw Patrol and Dora the Explorer. 

“The V.I.P.s are the kids,” said Daniel Lozano, vice president of operations at Karisma Hotels & Resorts.   

The hotels are designed to accommodate children’s needs. For example, younger kids tend to be early risers, and, even on vacation, often go to bed earlier. The Nickelodeon hotels are designed to accommodate this, with the days starting early and kid-skewing events wrapping up by 10:30 p.m. 

“We know how the kids wake up early in the morning,” Lozano said. “By 9:30 p.m. to 10:00 p.m. they are totally tired. They have been swimming the whole day, going down the [water]slides—with so many different experiences … at the end of the day they go to sleep.” 

There are other considerations too, like food preferences. The Karisma resorts are known for their gourmet dining, but kids tend to have pickier palates. “There’s a lot of cuisine that’s built around the adults right, but there’s also a lot of things for the younger kids,” said Corzo. “[Foods] they like: chicken nuggets, burgers, things like that.”  

At the forefront of this is safety and security. For food, that means being aware of allergies and providing guests with information. For recreation, it means having a well-trained staff and Red Cross-certified lifeguards. “Security, for us, is extremely important,” said Lozano. 

The Nickelodeon difference
Corzo pointed to the hotels’ unique charms to set it apart from the competition. 

“The room itself is an experience,” said Lozano.

Everything from the artwork to the cushions is carefully designed to evoke a sense of Nickelodeon wonder. This carries throughout the resorts’ amenities, with Nickelodeon-themed waterparks, entertainment, and retail spaces.

“We have the most characters in the Caribbean and Mexico,” said Corzo. “There are a lot of all-inclusives in this space. What sets us apart is the uniqueness that we have at the hotel level.”

Karisma works hard to ensure that the hotel provides the sort of dream vacation families are looking for, which means making sure guests spend time with the characters they’ve paid to see. The average guest can expect character interactions 14 to 17 times a day. The hotels aim to offer multiple opportunities to see and interact with these familiar figures too— whether that’s attending a live event or getting a selfie with a Paw Patrol pup over breakfast. 

“The important thing here is the engagement that the parents and the kids may have with those characters,” said Lozano. “What I notice when I go to the hotels is the expression of the parents when they see their kids with Dora the Explorer and SpongeBob. Those are unique experiences.”