Club Med’s Vice-President, Canada, Carolyne Doyon

Club Med not only pioneered the all-inclusive concept, it’s also perfecting it, particularly for families looking for top-notch activities and programming for their kids. Club Med’s Vice-President, Canada, Carolyne Doyon talks about the company’s most popular (and most surprising) resort locations and the compelling Kids Stay Free deal.

1. When and where did the first Club Med open?

Doyon: The very first Club Med Resort opened in 1950 at Alcudia, Baleares. It was a tents village.

2. What are three of Club Med’s most popular resorts, and also three properties in somewhat surprising destinations?

Doyon: Each of the 71 resorts has a particular soul which makes them all unique. We have very popular destinations in the Caribbean such as Cancun Yucatan, Mexico and Punta Cana, Dominican Republic. The ski destinations have become popular for our Canadian clients such as Chamonix Mont-Blanc and Valmorel in the French Alps.

Club Med appeared for a long time as a sun-only destination. It’s a bit surprising to our partners to discover that we have a very competitive product in the Alps with 20 Resorts in the Alps and two in Asia. A new one will open in December 2014 in the French Alps, proposing a new generation experience at Val Thorens Sensations.

Our five-masted sailing ship is also surprising by going to very gorgeous places thanks to its small-draft. We are proposing new destinations every summer and winter seasons.

3. Are most agents and consumers aware of Club Med’s superior kids’ club programming and promotions, or is there still room for education?

Doyon: Club Med’s core target is active families and they are for sure aware of the deals we are offering for children.

Our priority for the past 18 months has been to promote the kids under four stay free deal. Our competitive program for children between four to 12 years old (50% off) and between 13 and 15 years old (40% off) needs to be more known by our partners.

That is why we are also putting at their disposal tools to understand and sell our product. Our dedicated website clubmedagents.ca is a perfect place to find answers about the deals we are offering, including this children’s pricing policy.

4. Club Med seems to be doing more last-minute sales and limited-time promotions. Are there even more late-bookers out there than a few years ago?

Doyon: We do have every kind of offer to suit the travellers who want to enjoy in the next days or who want to anticipate three months to one year in advance.

We also offering limited time offers to answer the demand of the market at specific times of the year.

We’ve noticed that that our sales for next winter are performing well, with a very good advance in comparison with last year. Offers for this summer are performing well too with a good answer from the market.

5. What’s Club Med’s latest out-reach to Canadian travel agents?

Doyon: We have our very appreciated free nights programs based on sales performances. It allows our partners to visit our beautiful resorts.

We like to incentive our partners with fam trips. We did our very first ski school of agents in April 2014 and we had almost 20 agents from Ontario and Quebec coming to discover Chamonix Mont-Blanc and Valmorel in the French Alps.