Playitas

-

Der Touristik, the parent group of Kuoni, owns just one hotel.  It’s called Playitas and it’s tucked away in a quiet corner of Fuerteventura.  How it came to be owned by Der Touristik is a long story - too long to describe now - but I think it’s fair to say that it wasn’t part of a finely tuned strategy; more just a happy accident.

We love our hotel in the same way that some parents love an unplanned and unexpected only child.  For a while we stumbled around not really knowing what to do with it but over time Playitas has developed into a real success story, becoming one of Europe’s best Sports Resort.  It now has a full size Olympic swimming pool, tennis courts, a state of the art road bike and mountain bike facility, the biggest gym I’ve ever seen and an almost endless list of activities, all designed to tone and hone the already rippling bodies of Europe’s elite fitness community.

So it was that last week I found myself having breakfast in a restaurant full of Lycra-clad triathletes.  Whilst they queued at the ‘Protein Bar’, I was scouring the buffet in vain for a pork sausage and slice of black pudding.  The International Management Team of Der Touristik, UK included, had descended upon Playitas for our annual conference.

It needs to be seen to believed.  By mid-morning the huge basketball arena in the middle of the hotel grounds is teeming with over 150 guests being led in an aerobics workout by an instructor perched on a six foot high podium, belting out instructions through a Madonna mic; the throb of a drum and bass exercise remix provoking ever more enthusiasm from the already pumped-up participants - it’s almost religious.  Throughout the day, cyclists arrive and depart the hotel and the lanes of the Olympic pool fills with swimmers carefully recording their lap times using the huge timers on each side of the pool.

Fitness is a huge business - think Park Runs, Wolf Runs, 10K’s, Iron Man competitions, and Triathlons - and yet the travel industry has been slow to respond.  There’s a massive untapped opportunity for hotels to cater for the fitness conscious.  This is not niche activity - millions of people are taking part in these activities every week.  Last Sunday over 40,000 people took part in the London Marathon (including our very own TTG Team!) so why not cater for them on holiday?

Perhaps the most surprising thing for me was how contagious the whole thing is.  By the end of day two I was happily signing up for activities that I wouldn’t dream of doing at home, culminating a 3.5k assault course run over the undulating black volcanic ash of the local countryside.

More and more people are recognising that communal exercise is a great way to manage the stress and strain of everyday life.  It seems a natural progression to take the same philosophy on holiday.

Maybe Playitas won’t be the only child after all. 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Travel Agents Aren’t Going Anywhere – They’re Becoming More Essential

-
Image
Every year, a new prediction circulates that travel agents are on the brink of extinction. Most recently, the usual doomsday narrative has been fuelled by the rapid rise of AI travel search. Ask a chatbot where to go for a “relaxing beach break with culture” and it will oblige with enthusiasm, lists, videos, average temperatures and possibly a recipe for paella if you get your prompts tangled. There’s no denying AI has raised the bar for inspiration . Customers can now explore possibilities instantly and visually, without leaving the sofa. That’s not a threat to agents, it’s just the new landscape. Where things get interesting is what happens next.  Because choice doesn’t create clarity, it creates overwhelm . P eople don’t want more holiday options. They want the right one. This is where the agent’s role shifts, but absolutely does not diminish. Agents no longer need to spend hours sifting through brochures or loading endless package searches. AI can handle the broad filterin...
Read more

Why on earth...?

-
Andrew Marr and James Naughty have both recently been guilty of the same unfortunate mistake when they inadvertently mis-introduced the ‘Culture Secretary, Jeremy Hunt’.   Strangely the same mispronunciation seemed to be affecting some parts of the travel industry last week, only this time it was harder to pin all the blame on Dr Spooner. Mr Hunt you see, has hit upon a plan so cunning that in the words of Blackadder ‘You could stick a tail on it and call it a weasel.’   (Cunning Hunt… be careful!)   Starting next month, the Department of Culture, Olympics, Media and Sport will be spending £4 million pounds of taxpayers money on its biggest ever TV advertising blitz with one purpose in mind - to stop your customers going overseas on holiday this summer.   The strapline... ‘There’s so much happening in Britain in 2012, why on earth would you want to go abroad?’ Thanks Mr Hunt.   I imagine £4 million is just the interest you’ve earned this month on all tha...
Read more

Virtual Eggheads - Does virtual reality have a place in travel retailing?

-
Image
Some products lend themselves to very highly targeted marketing opportunities. I’m thinking here of the sort of things that end up being advertised on small posters above men’s urinals in motorway service station toilets. Currently filling this particular marketing spot is a poster featuring three naked men, each holding a hat over his Cox and Kings. Well, two of them are holding the hat; the middle man’s hat appears to be levitating of its own accord, supported we can only imagine by his very own medically assisted, erm… hat stand. This thought was running around my head as I was having my hair cut last week. The usual - a number three at the back and sides, and shorten the top to match. Simple haircuts need simple tools and so my barber comes simply equipped with a comb, a good pair of scissors, an electric trimmer and a hairdryer. The hairdryer by the way is not for drying, it’s for blowing any stray (mostly grey) hairs off my shoulders when he’s finished. Notably miss...
Read more