New Alpine Ski Resort Has Club Med Rolling Out Fam Trips And Training For Travel Agents

As summer approaches, Club Med is kicking into high gear with free water skiing, summer camp programs, redesigned restaurants and a new Club Med CREACTIVE by Cirque du Soleil program.  

By year’s end, the iconic French all-inclusive chain will add a new family-friendly flagship ski resort in the Alps as well. And with the North American customer base for its 20 ski resorts growing exponentially, it is upping its focus on travel agents in the United States and Canada. 

On the roster are weekly fam trips for about 45 agents each, to Club Med Sandpiper Bay, throughout the month of May. Then June will be the chain’s official Travel Advisor Appreciation Month, with webinars, a contest, sharable social media content and more – and Club Med will kick off the month with a “thank you” trip to Punta Cana for its top-producing agents and agency owners.  

Resources for travel agents include a Learning & Loyalty platform, clubmedexpertagent.com, where agents can enter their bookings to earn free nights in the Club Med loyalty program; a travel agent portal at ClubMedTA.com; and an online booking platform, EasyClubMed.com.  

For groups, Club Med is rolling out a new Groups Advantage Program that combines the meetings expertise of the Meetings & Events by Club Med team with discounts and perks for agents booking groups of 20 or more. 

And with a projected 30% increase in calls to its U.S. and Canadian call centers this year, Club Med has been hiring agents to be ready to help travel agents in any way they can.  

Kicking Into Summer Season At The Resorts
The month of May ushers in the high season at Club Med, and with it this year come many new options. Club Med Sandpiper Bay on May 1 debuted its summer camp program, offering training in tennis, golf, beach volleyball and swimming from internationally known professional coaches. 

Physical changes take center stage at a number of resorts. At Club Med Turkoise in Turks & Caicos, the Grace Bay restaurant on May 1 opened a newly redesigned area offering buffet-style international and local specialties for breakfast and dinner. 

In June, Club Med Opio en Provence will open Club Med CREACTIVE by Cirque du Soleil, a unique playground designed by Cirque du Soleil with 30 acrobatic and artistic activities influenced by Cirque du Soleil acts and taught by expert coaches and artists. The La Provence and Le Golf restaurants have been redesigned, new glass balconies have been added outside the guest rooms, and a new exclusive private beach excursion near Cannes and new meeting spaces are being offered.  

And in July, Club Med Cancun will start complete renovations to its Las Cazuelas restaurant, including a new tapas menu, and its bar lounge, pool deck and all rooms.

In the Bahamas, Club Med Columbus Isle in April moved to the tapas menu and reopened its restaurant (see story).

The most exciting news, though, will be the opening of a new resort, Club Med Samoens, in December. Spurred by the booming interest in family ski vacations Club Med has been seeing – with its numbers from Canada and the United States doubling in the past two years – Club Med’s 21st all-inclusive ski destination will feature 420 guest rooms in the heart of the Swiss Alps, just an hour from Geneva airport.  

A large segment of growth for Club Med has undeniably been for ski vacations to the Alps, said Xavier Mufraggi, CEO of Club Med North America. “Of course the favorable currency position versus the euro was an added perk, but we are also confident that we offer the best available way to ski the Alps thanks to the ease of our all-inclusive ski packages.”