Apple Leisure Group CEO Alex Zozaya says the next great opportunity for both travelers and investors is Haiti.
According to Glassdoor, Americans are choosing to spend their summers in the office, rather than going on vacation — as the average employee with time off only uses about half of their paid-vacation time. Zozaya told Fox Business Network’s Cheryl Casone that despite this, the total number of travelers isn’t decreasing in relation to previous years.
“I do think that the trend is changing. Americans are traveling shorter lengths of stay,” said Zozaya. “They’re trying to stay closer to home.”
He said this desire to stay close to home is what sparked Apple Leisure Group’s interest in expanding throughout the Caribbean market. The company also just signed a new deal in St. Thomas with Dreams Resort.
Zozaya said that more resorts under Apple Leisure Group’s umbrella are moving towards creating all-inclusive packages targeting “the high-end passenger who is not looking for price, but for convenience and value for money.”
In addition to these packages, Zozaya told Casone that Apple Leisure Group is working to create “a destination within the destination,” particularly in Haiti.
Although Apple Leisure Group is not building or buying land in Haiti, Zozaya says the company is creating a “master plan” to invite investors to build Haiti as a multi-brand destination, complete with its own airport and golf-course.
And out of all the islands in the Caribbean, why Haiti?
“The next place that I see to really explode in terms of a great destination closer to home for the American market is Haiti,” said Zozaya. “It provides a great opportunity. It is a beautiful place and has an excellent location.”
Apple Leisure Group is backed by Bain Capital. The company has 32 resorts and travel agencies under its management, including Unlimited Vacation Club, CheapCaribbean.com, Travel Impressions, Apple Vacations, Amstar and AMResorts.
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COMMENT: HAITIAN-TRUTH.ORG
How can you attract serious long-term investors to location that has Land Title questions and angry dispossessed peasants?
The Martelly government will be gone by the time anything gets moving and there could be trouble ahead.
Having heavy concentrations of Police from CIMO and BIM on an iland paradise, because the government use of Eminent Domain for a project that really does not qualify for seizure of property for pennies, when massive profits are expected, is a guarantee for disaster in Haiti.
Neat project but I would have handled the Haitian families, living on Isle a’Vache for generations, in a different manner.
The island has existed for generations without any help from the Governments of Haiti. Hurricanes come and go without anything. The have been cut off and ignored by Haitian society.
This project will be a non-runner when investors do their Due Diligence.
This project is about to become a focus of the opposition and will create waves throughout the international investment/tourist industry.
There is a reason why the Dominican Republic got many projects, especially German, that were originally focused upon Haiti.