TRAVELHotNews.com Magazine

Click here to print

03 April 2007

Send to a friend

Club Med La Caravelle : up for a new start!

TRAVELHotNews.com At Grand Re-Opening of Guadaloupe Resort

Nathalie De Grandmont

Henri Giscard d’Estaing, Chairman and CEO of Club Med, with Sainte-Anne's mayor, Mr. Blaise Aldo.

After an eight-month, 24 million-Euro refurbishment the Club Med Village of La Caravelle, in Guadeloupe, is now shining anew and set to return to its places as one of the top resorts of the French Caribbean.

The village re-opened its doors to visitors last December but the official celebration only took place last Friday night, March 30t, on the beach of La Caravelle, said to be the most beautiful of the island of Grande Terre. It reunited a crowd of many prestigious guests, many of whom had travelled from Europe especially for the occasion. Among them were several local politicians; journalists from various European magazines and newspapers; and many senior executives from Air France and Club Med, including Mrs Brenda Kyllo, the director for Canada, who had also invited a small delegation of Canadian media.

The ceremony was hosted by none other than the CEO of Club Med himself, Henri Giscard d’Estaing, a highly respected businessman in France and son of a former French president.

Brenda Kyllo, general manager for Canada

Since La Caravelle belongs to the municipality of Sainte-Anne (a short 20-minute walk from the resort), the mayor of that town, M. Blaise Aldo, also addressed the crowd. “Since its opening – in the 70s – the Club Med La Caravelle has always been one of the region’s main economic partners,” he said; also pointing out that aside from the animation team (the “G.O.”, coming from all parts of the world), 90per cent of the resort’s employees are from Sainte-Anne. No wonder the local authorities (62% of the funds came from the public sector) and Club Med worked hand-in-hand to promote and finance the restoration of the village, in order to upgrade the rooms, the public areas and the services. After two previous phases of restoration initiated in 2000, they agreed to upgrade it even more.

Eight months and 24 millions euros later, La Caravelle now features 299 completely refurbished rooms and 35 new suites, decorated with bright colours and fine wooden furniture. Each is equipped with flat-screen TVs, air-conditioning, minibars, radio/CD, hairdryers and top-notch bathrooms, and many feature balconies with either a garden or a sea view. The state-of-the-art gym , restaurants and bars have also been restored by the same team – the architect Patrick Lamy and the decorator Marie Prost. With these changes, La Caravelle has gone from a three to a four “Trident” Village; just like many other Club Med villages such as the ones in Colombus Isle (Bahamas) and Cancun. The Trident sign is Club Med’s own system, used to give their customers an idea of the level of comfort and services they can expect in each resort.

“We had to make La Caravelle one of the symbols of the new Club Med,” said Henri Giscard d’Estaing. “In fact, this village fitted perfectly into our big restructuring plan, which was initiated a couple years ago. That plan is aiming to upgrade – to a four Trident level – half of our villages by the end of 2008, while maintaining our biggest assets: conviviality plus high-end gastronomy, sports and animation.“

As a matter fact, Henry Giscard d’Estaing also mentioned that an extra six million Euros were also spent on training. “Most of the personnel of La Caravelle benefited from a 27-week training program, which allowed them to improve their skills in foreign languages and in all the other aspects of customers services,” he explained.

With this beautiful upgrade, Club Med officials and key players of the local tourism industry are confident that La Caravelle will soon attract a broader European clientele, as well as many Canadian and American visitors.

“The earlier renovations of the village Les Boucaniers (in Martinique) and those of La Caravelle are proving that we are truly dedicated to push Martinique and Guadeloupe among the top destinations of the Caribbean,” said d’Estaing.

The night of the inauguration, La Caravelle was indeed shining at its best; especially in the eyes of the children of Sainte-Anne’s school, who concluded the ceremony by offering a drawing they had made out of… chocolate! The evening then ended on a very colourful note, with the show of the Guadeloupe-born singer Medhy Custos, who achieved star-status in France and in the Caribbean, following the success of his album Serial Lover.

The children, the G.O’s, and even the kitchen staff couldn’t stop singing and dancing on his lively zouk rythms. And, needless to say, this wave of joy and cheerfulness quickly caught on with everyone present. The resort seems to have all it takes to entertain, treat and charm many new visitors, who will certainly be greeted with a nice and cheerful creole welcome: “Ben vini à la Caravelle!”