One-on-one with Sunwing’s Chief Marketing Officer Samantha Taylor
During a recent visit to Cayo Largo, Baxter Media’s Mitchell McClung had a chance to sit down with Sunwing Travel Group’s Chief Marketing Officer, Samantha Taylor, to talk about the company’s unique deal with the Cuban government that sees it managing all of the hotels, shared services, etc. on the island. Read on for the full story.
Sunwing has had a long history of having [provided] some incredible support for Cuba overall. We’re actually the largest provider of tourism to the island. More than 60% of the tourism population in Cuba comes through Sunwing. So, we have a very long history. We had serviced the island pre-pandemic, but this was a very unique opportunity, as[Cayo Largo] had been closed since March of 2020 and into 2022, and the opportunity came up that we could actually manage all of the hotels on the island, all of the shared service areas, etc.
What that really allowed was for a very unique experience for our customers, when it’s one management company handling everything on the island. If customers decide to move and use different amenities at different resorts, if they’re using kind of the local areas, etc., it’s all kind of overseen by the same company. And we thought that was a really wonderful opportunity.
And so, we have happily entered into this agreement. It has been a journey. When an island is closed for two years, it is not kind of overnight that things get fixed. And the incredible stamina and perseverance of the local teams to be able to get this product ready to welcome Canadians has been really remarkable. As we sit [here] today, we have three meaningful anchor properties that are open, and that is Memories Cayo Largo, Starfish Cayo Largo, as well as Sanctuary at Grand Memories. We’re actively opening other areas. We also have Villa Linda Mar that’s open and a few other kind of small boutique pieces, but [we’re] looking to have most of the island completely open for high season, while still ensuring that the offering is at expectations for what customers are looking for and what they come to expect with this island that has such a long history and a long relationship with Canadians throughout the country, but in particular in Quebec as well.
Memories is really the main anchor hotel that we have open right now. Memories and Starfish combined. They’re right next door to each other. And they’re really the two anchor hotels that provide a really great price point, a really meaningful price point for Canadians on both of those. Memories [is] obviously the one step up from Starfish. Starfish incredibly family friendly; Memories as well is very family friendly. These two resorts are really, right now, gearing up to be fully operational and create the full experience for people visiting Cayo Largo.
We also have Sanctuary that’s open. That is [the] 47 unique bungalows… and [it’s] the most luxurious product on the island right now. Perfect for honeymooners. Top rated. Giving the kind of exclusive and seclusion elements that people love when they’re booking these kind of unique bungalows — and [it’s] all brand new and really [has] gorgeous amenities.
The island is unique, where it has those type of unique items as well, like Villa Linda Mar, [which offers] different cottages. We have people that come to the island that sometimes spend two, three weeks, and it’s nice to have a little bit more space than just a hotel room. So that provides them that experience to come and go and feel like it’s their own kind of home away from home. And so, there’s a lot of amenities that are kind of in the villa category as well on this island that you wouldn’t normally see in other areas. So, it really does provide something for everyone.
Cuba has something for everyone. And I would say that the biggest element in Cuba is that the beaches are so pristine and sargassum-free, which we know for anybody travelling in the Caribbean is a very critical factor to make sure that you have beautiful beaches where you’re going. We have multiple hotels, in Varadero, also in Holguin, and we have opened several hotels actually in the city of Havana in the last year, including the Royalton Havana and Mystique as well. The properties are actually quite expansive and [offer] something for everybody.
So, you will have the Royaltons, which are top rated, amazing experiences. If you’ve experienced a Royalton anywhere, they bring everything to you. Actually, both our Royalton Hicacos and our Royalton Cayo Santa Maria are top rated TripAdvisor hotels that have both won multiple awards. Cayo Santa Maria is one of the top hotels in the world. So, we have that brand.
We have the Memories brand, which is a more accessible price point, but still very family oriented. We have the Starfish brand, which is very opening price point and accessible in that and those are in all of those locations as well.
So, you kind of think, Starfish, Memories, Grand Memories and then Royalton. But for something unique and different, we also have the Mystique brand, which is more of a boutique hotel [brand]. We have Mystique Casa Perla. That is also in Varadero. That is an amazing property. It’s so small, it is an Instagram dream. Absolutely gorgeous. We have a Mystique in Havana as well.
When we think about Cayo Largo, especially, [in terms of] what it is offering in context to the fact that Canadians have every other option available as well kind of what makes us unique, we kind of rally around this idea of three ‘E’s’ or three distinct pillars. The first pillar is ENJOY. Cayo Largo has 25 kilometres of pristine, white sandy beaches, that you will not find anywhere else in the Caribbean. It is a very eco-friendly environment. Sometimes it almost feels like you’re on this little deserted island off the south coast of Cuba. It is on Cuba’s Sunshine Coast, so it has more sunny days here than anywhere else. It is warmer. As you’ve experienced this week, it is hot here, but it’s also very comfortable year-round. And those are kind of the elements — the beautiful beaches, the wonderful kind of experience that you have here of kind of isolation and disconnecting — everything to do with ENJOY. That’s the first pillar – ENJOY.
The second [pillar] we talked about is EXPLORE. It [Cayo Largo] is a nature lover’s paradise. So, things are not over touristed. Things are very natural. It’s a very eco-friendly island. The snorkelling is incredible. Some of the best coral reefs that you will find are here. It is a scuba diver’s paradise. We have a lot of diving centres here that cater to that as well. And from an EXPLORE standpoint, some of the people at the hotel have rented scooters — it’s extremely safe and you can go out there and see different things and be in nature. And so, the EXPLORE piece — with that element of it being eco-friendly and really [being] in the environment — is a very big second pillar.
And the last one we talk about is EMBRACE. We look at this island and how gorgeous it is and everything that it has to offer and then what else does it deliver and what has it delivered to Canadians for a very long time. That idea of unplugging and mental health and you know, a book lovers’ paradise, and being able to come and disconnect and not being harassed and almost feel like this entire island is just yours and that is something that really appeals to a large demographic of people. It appeals to people at different ages as well. And that’s what we’re trying to ensure — that we’re communicating and branding for that next generation of Cayo Largo lovers — all the benefits that come with this island as well, because the people that visited the island before the pandemic, they have a deep, long history with this island, but that different, newer, next generation, we kind of need to break down [for them] what are all the benefits on that, and embrace that island feel, embrace all of those things. This is a different product than anywhere else in the Caribbean, or even anywhere else in Cuba. It’s a different product, and we want to encourage Canadians to kind of lean back, turn off the Wi Fi, and grab that book and go deep because no one’s going to bother you…
The last thing I would kind of add in the EMBRACE piece [is that] in addition to wellness, one of our strategic priorities going forward will be to partner with different companies around meditation, around yoga, around health, to invite people to come and unplug for that week.
Cayo Largo has had a deep history of environmentalism and being sensitive to that, even in so much that the beaches kind of fluctuate. As you can see, we’re surrounded by nature and the animals come and live amongst us – that has always been a critically important piece. When you are on island that’s quite isolated, it’s also important to ensure that you’re taking care and living with nature in balance.
The team at Blue Diamond have very clear objectives here as well. They want to remove all the plastic on the island. They want to ensure that people can travel the island on electric vehicles, etc. So, they have a multi-year plan to ensure that we’re delivering on that and are committed to giving back to the island as much as the island kind gives to us as well.
I think if I was a travel advisor and I was selling it, I would first start with – What do you want? How important is the beach? If the beach is critically important, and you want a beautiful experience, and you do not want sargassum or anything, then right away, I would narrow that focus to Cuba. Then within Cuba, what are the different elements that are important to you? Is it that laid-back vibe? Do you want to feel like you’re in an authentic experience? Do you want to be left alone in that quietness and kind of unplug — then this is the type of property for [your client] and this is the type of country for [your client].
It is very different than what you will experience in other places. And I think if that person is looking for something where the beach is important, where the experience with the local culture is important — we haven’t even talked about how incredible this staff is here — I think, you can see for yourself — the long history of people kind of knowing each other by name and showing up and people recognizing each other — that type of intimate feel is for the customer that wants to unplug in Cayo Largo for a week.
I think that we have experienced several years of not only the pandemic but before that sargassum kind of impacting the beaches. I think people do not believe the beaches until they see them. I cannot believe that this even exists today because the beaches are so pristine. I think that would be the biggest surprise. I think that the island is incredibly warm. That it is very fun, feels intimate. It feels like you’re returning to family. And that’s a wonderful experience, and one that is probably very reflective of the long history that Cubans and Canadians have had.
We talk about [the] build-up [of] customer expectations, travel revenge, which is very, very there. I think people’s expectations of how to travel changed over the pandemic. I feel like when we were in our houses, and everything was delivered through Instacart, and Amazon and everything was turnkey, you start to kind of forget that nature actually exists and sometimes you can’t control the variables as well, right. So, we’ve been very lucky to have built back our business so quickly. And we feel very privileged to have that position with our customers and that trust with our customers. But it hasn’t been without hiccups. And I think that as the entire industry has recovered, customers have come, they’ve seen the highs and the lows. But I feel like now we’re in a much better position to kind of move forward together as we’ve kind of reset this.
Sunwing has a 20-year history of bringing Canadians south, and we have built that trust with our customers on a few different promises. The first of those promises is about accessibility. We have price points all over and we’ve often found to be in a position where people will take their first trip with us, maybe to Cuba, maybe somewhere else — to Mexico — they have that first trip with us, they have a wonderful experience and as they grow and their dynamic and their own economic situation changes or their own family situation changes, we hold that hand kind of through the rest of the journey as well. And so that’s always been kind of part of that experience that accessibility.
The second piece of the brand, as we really see it, is that wide variety of product. If accessibility is the first [promise], the second [promise] is about product. We sell over 700 different products throughout the Caribbean and South America — there is something for everyone within that very highly-rated product, very opening price point product and everything in between.
And then the third piece is really about experiences and excursions. Prior to the recent acquisition, Nexus tours was part of our greater Sunwing Travel Group, but they are still our trusted partner. When people do experiences, and they go off resorts and they experience the local culture, it actually adds to the overall happiness of the vacation.
So that’s kind of the core brand proposition on why people book Sunwing versus anything else. And I think we I think we deliver that consistently and are very dedicated to ensuring that we’re delivering on that.
It wasn’t an easy winter… it wasn’t an easy December, I will say that. When we look at the entire industry and what happened last summer, most of the other airlines and travel providers hit their peak last summer. We know what happened then — there were delays, there were other issues. You were ramping up an industry that had been closed for quite a long time; bringing people back to work; it wasn’t an easy ramp up to peak. Our peak happens in December. Our peak is in the winter season, which is actually somewhat off of other travel providers. And so when we had the storm of the century come through three days before the holiday started, all this — the perfect storm — coming together with the busiest travel days that you would see all year in a regular year, and the busiest travel days that we as an industry have seen in the last three or four years, we really did have this kind of perfect storm where for us, once something happens, and we can’t kind of catch up, it starts having a domino effect.
We are a charter-focus airline. And so, when we bring people to destination, and we bring them back, that is kind of the business cycle, we don’t cancel flights, we just don’t do that. Because if we do, there are people in destination waiting to come home. And so, we ensure that then we are repatriating those, and it’s all at our own cost. So, we try not to do that. That was kind of part of some of the issues that had happened in December.
But what I would point out is, if there are significant delays that happen, we always ensure that we’re taking care of our customers. So, unlike everyone, if your flight with Sunwing is delayed due to unforeseen events, we are still covering your hotel; we’re still covering food and drink; we’re still making sure that we’re not abandoning you. And we will bring you home — no matter what, we are going to bring you home. We repatriate all of our customers. And so, it was not a happy time. It was quite a stressful two weeks within the organization. There were a lot of learnings that happened there. We had to make a lot of hard decisions for the rest of the winter to ensure that we could still deliver a high level of service and deliver what that expectation was, but by our customers as well. So, I feel that the rest of the winter was incredibly smooth. We never, thank goodness, had an issue like that again. And now our focus is on delivering a great summer, but also then putting down the foundation planning on how we will also deliver a great winter next year.
It’s very easy to blame. It’s very easy to say it’s this airline, or it’s that airline. But the complexity of delivering travel actually has a lot of players at the table. And if they’re all not at 100%, then the cracks can be anywhere. The cracks can happen anywhere. It can happen from baggage belts, which are out of our control, it can happen through short staffing and other areas. It can happen in multiple different areas.
But I am very proud of at the end how that timeline was handled. I am very proud of how Sunwing [handled] itself … I mean people on the outside didn’t realize that every single person in our organization was working 20 to 24 hours a day to make sure that we were bringing customers home, that they were taken care of, that they got the support that they needed.
And I will say that Sunwing as an organization — the resiliency is incredible. It is incredibly resilient for how many hiccups have happened… How many elements have happened in the last couple of years with COVID. And yet the people themselves — we are a people first business — it’s quite incredible. So, I understand people were disrupted in their holidays in December, but we promise it’s going to get better… it is better.
