All-inclusive resorts root for staying put
SARAH FIRSHEIN
After Amanda Stephens, a doctor in North Florida, had two cruises canceled last year, she turned to the next-best thing: eight days at Ambergris Cay, an all-inclusive luxury resort on a private island in Turks and Caicos, a British overseas territory. The family’s November trip was filled with white-sand beaches, water sports, on-site dining, complimentary spa treatments, and games and activities for the children, 7 and 11. “I think my Google search was literally ‘private island,’” joked Dr. Stephens, 36. “I desperately needed a break, but as a doctor, I also needed it to feel safe — that’s why we chose an all-inclusive.”
A year and a half into the pandemic, with the highly contagious Delta variant continuing to ratchet up infections, travel is still complicated. International restrictions change by the week, cruising for many remains fraught and the “live like a local” ethos — which dominated travel marketing for the last decade — doesn’t appeal now in quite the same way, say, on a crowded bus in a distant city. That’s why many travellers like Dr. Stephens are turning to all-inclusive resorts that offer in-house dining, outdoor diversions and, in many cases, onsite testing for the coronavirus.
A booming business
Ambergris Cay is but one of around 1,500 all-inclusive properties worldwide, according to July numbers from STR, a hospitality data and analytics company, with the term meaning that the room rate is bundled with amenities that might otherwise cost extra — say, meals, activities and service fees. Pricing can vary widely and, depending on the property, might include spa treatments, access to a kids’ club and destination-specific experiences like paddle boarding or skiing. But whatever the particulars, resorts of this ilk generally provide neatly bow-tied, self-contained trips — usually without complicated logistics.
“The people who liked piecing trips together and exploring the unknown are approaching travel a little less adventurously,” said Melissa Wu, the owner of Woodlyn Travel, a travel agency in Pasadena, Calif. “Covid numbers are unpredictable; countries keep changing their entry requirements. And people are just tired: They’re worried about their health, their kids, their work; they’re burned out from the juggling.” It’s no surprise, then, that all-inclusives are booming. September and October bookings at Sandals Resorts, which has 15 all-inclusives in the Caribbean, are up 151 percent compared to 2019. Club Med, a pioneering all-inclusive brand that has 70 resorts worldwide and is planning to debut in Canada, in the Le Massif ski area of Quebec, in December, has reported record sales this year, with several weeks this summer showing double-digit growth in bookings over 2019. Even the uninitiated are tuning in: In the last six months, more than 80 percent of total bookings at Club Med Sandpiper Bay, in Port St. Lucie, Fla., have been made by first-time guests, who have also accounted for more than 70 percent of bookings at Club Med’s Mexico and Caribbean resorts.
“We know that many of these guests decided to book an all-inclusive vacation with us in order to avoid the hassle of coordinating a do-it-yourself vacation, especially after such a challenging year,” said Carolyne Doyon, the president and chief executive of Club Med North America and the Caribbean.