Club Med Phuket Revitalised
Nearing the end of a global upscale transformation, which has taken two decades, Club Med reveals its beach resort, Club Med Phuket, after a first phase of renovations. We speak to the brand’s CEO of East, South Asia and Pacific, Rachael Harding for all the details
Thai boxing, archery, scuba diving, golf, cooking classes, Flying Trapeze, and a Discovery Center that organises excursions — it’s nearly an understatement to say there’s plenty to do at Club Med Phuket, which spans 16 hectares and has been the island’s tropical paradise for 39 years. The all-inclusive experience, which Club Med is synonymous with, also means one never ever has to worry about his or her meals. While the resort is nearly four decades old, it’s now looking almost as good as new: The property has finished phase one of refurbishment and is about to embark on phase two of renovations. All this indicates how “serious”, as the brand’s CEO of East, South Asia and Pacific, Rachael Harding puts it, Club Med is about its upscale transformation, which began some 20 years ago.
What are some of your personal favourite facilities or elements of Club Med Phuket, after the first phase of its renovations?
It’s a simple question but a hard one because there are two areas that we’ve worked on. One is the centre of the village, which is the heartbeat of the village and where the main restaurant, bar, pool and theatre are located. I don’t know if you saw the resort beforehand, but I feel like we have this beautiful pool and a seamless f low now from the pool into the ocean. Before it was more closed off, and now with the glass panelling, it’s just beautiful and open. It gives a beautiful atmosphere looking at the sea. The centre of the village is probably my favourite but I have to say also the renovated rooms. The combination of contemporary and modern with a bit of a Thai twist with the materials and fabrics, the wood and the fishermen lights beside the beds — I think the finishings in the rooms are really beautiful.
The Club Med Resort portfolio is close to finishing its full upscale transformation to what it calls the Premium or Exclusive Collection. What was the impetus for this transformation and what does it entail?
It took 20 years. In the transformation, we closed 75 resorts, just to give an indication of how serious we are — this isn’t just about renovating. If the resort was in the wrong location, we didn’t deem it to be premium enough, the resort wasn’t maintained to the level that we needed it to be, the resort was difficult to run and it was hard to get the staff to make the resort important, we closed it when it came to the end of a lease or we sold it if we owned it. The reason for this is Club Med was a bit of everything to everyone, so we were leading lower properties — we called them three trident and four trident properties — and there were just a lot copycats and competition. It was eating us up from the bottom. Henri (Giscard d’Estaing, President of Club Med) actually came in and looked at the portfolio and realised that the most resilient type of clientele is actually the upscale, affluent clientele, especially in the family space, which is what we are. So that was the impetus. It was survival actually, number one, and future proofing ourselves for exactly what just happened. We saw that after the pandemic, the first group of people that would come back travelling are the more affluent, premium clientele. So that was the reason for it, and it was supposed to take 10 years. Unfortunately, it took longer because of all the incidents that took place in between — tsunamis, bird flu, volcanoes erupting, COVID, financial crises, and the list goes on. It took much longer than expected to complete, but it’s all completed now. Now we’re down to 70 resorts and we’ve accelerated quite quickly: We’ve got 13 new resorts opening in the next couple of years and we’re continuing to renovate, and bring up to even higher standards, some of the existing resorts.
What are some of the key trends that you’ve noticed in recent times when it comes to what guests and travellers are looking for?
There are a lot of trends that have emerged after COVID. Number one, people tend to want to go a bit longer and go a bit deeper into the destination. There has been a real yearn for wanting to explore something different again, and connection with themselves, and their friends, and families — having that quality time. People are often driven back by passion sports — things that they could do for a very long time like playing golf, diving, skiing. All of these things that, if you’re really passionate about, you would be able to do them for a while. Other big trends are people looking for more wellness options, whether that be activities to do, the spa, food and beverage options, trying to take care of themselves. And of course this is linked to sustainability in the sense of understanding the environment that they’re travelling to, and local community and people as well. People think it’s always linked to the environment and nature, but also it’s about the local community and the impact that needs to be taken care of. The people can’t be displaced — you need to seamlessly bring them into your operation. So I think people are very conscious of people around the world now, and looking after that as well as the environment.
Club Med is a leader in all-inclusive holiday experiences. What are some things that you think set Club Med Phuket apart from the other properties in the city?
First of all, there weren’t that many when we came here. We came here almost 40 years ago and there was no one where we are now. That’s why we have 16 hectares of land — you’ll never get that now and we’re three times bigger than any hotel here. If you see the drone shots when we arrived here, there was nothing around us. But we chose this destination because of the beautiful beach, the people, the food, and the climate. So it’s no wonder that there are lots of people here now. Where we stand alone is that we are truly the only all-inclusive experience — there is all-
inclusive around, but it tends to be a few activities and your meals. There’s no comprehensive offering, especially for families. Kids club for every age, Amazing Family, which is activities for parents to do with their children, and the ability to do that on these beautiful grounds, on the beach, is what sets us apart. And there’s one more big one, and that’s our staff. A truly international staff that really brings this place to life. They represent over 30 nationalities here.
The second phase of renovations involve a Family Oasis and Enhanced Rooms. Tell us what you can about these upcoming features.
We first renovated the centre of the village as I mentioned. And all the meeting spaces, we renovated as well. We run quite a comprehensive meeting and events program, especially for things like team conferences because it’s such beautiful ground for team building activities and things like that. We’ll do the next phase of room renovations — we’ve done one side of the resort and will do the whole other side. So, the Family Oasis, first of all, why? Seventy two per cent of people who are here are families. Even though we have plenty of options for friends and couples as well, 72 per cent are families. And Phuket is a family destination. In our other properties of Cancun, Seychelles and Marrakech, we trialed these Family Oases. It’s another zone, if you like, within the resort that offers a bit of a haven for families to stay, and we’re building 32 new rooms there. The rooms that are designed, both in terms of size and elements within, are for families — they host two adults, two kids and a baby, and there’s a separate area for the children to sleep. And they’re all built around a big water park, a dry playground, and their own restaurant with all-day dining options. This will be finished in quarter two of next year. Anyone from the resort can use that space — you don’t have to be staying in that block, but if you are, you have access to that immediately.
