Heber Garrido has nearly 30 years of experience in the tourism industry and changed his job in October 2020, when he took over, in the midst of a pandemic, the marketing and sales area of the complex that includes the Hot Beach Resort, Celebration Resort Olímpia, Thermas Park Resort & Spa and the Hot Beach Suites. Since then, he has seen investments in communication grow, the generation of new businesses and the surprising return of the public, reinforcing his analysis of the strength of the segment. “I see tourism as part of spiritual healing.” Follow the interview.
Before Hot Beach Olímpia you were at Aviva. What was the project?
It was a very interesting phase of the expansion point, when Grupo Rio Quente Recort buys the Costa do Sauípe hotel complex. We had to launch the Aviva brand, where entertainment was the end and the hotel business became the means. This came with a lot of impact and a lot of strength. It changed the business model, it was not just a real estate acquisition. During this period came the pandemic.
You have nearly three decades of experience in the market and in recent years you have been involved in major expansions and innovations in the segment, in parallel with the challenges of the pandemic. How has this period been?
The development of tourism with more strength and scale, thinking about resorts, has been going on for 20 years now. When I started there was something in Bahia, Rio de Janeiro and Foz do Iguaçu (PR), today the offer is much greater. And this period of the pandemic was one of personal and professional learning, of reviewing values and purposes, valuing more being and not having. I also made a career transition in the middle of it. It was a big transformation. But we are still in a pandemic, it still requires care, protocols and vaccine. But I’m optimistic.
At what point did you arrive at the new business and with what mission?
We were closed from March to October 2020. I arrived just then for the partial reopening, so I just completed a year, which was a roller coaster period. But, despite everything, the recovery was very strong. When it reopened, it was surprising. The challenge at that time was dealing with different audiences, those who respected the protocols and those who didn’t, so it was the challenge of enforcing people’s safety. As we were closed, we had time to prepare and arrive more safely. It was a cash hit, but we had time to prepare. The strategy then was to communicate security and protocols, create an environment of trust, make it clear how we would operate, how this return would be, with transparency, creating links and being flexible in the policies adopted. We did this and 95% of rescheduled reservations were not cancelled.
Have there been layoffs?
The Ferrasa Group is 40 years old and focuses on civil construction. As we didn’t stop with the constructions, it gave breath and box, but we made small adjustments. We use the rules to make leave and leave, but we go back to hiring people.
After this phase, what do you have under your scope of work today?
We have four resorts, we inaugurated the Hot Beach Suites, under the multi-property model, during the holiday season in July this year, and we have the water park, which is the great demand generator for the destination. Olímpia has two water parks, one of which is ours, which is among the ten most visited in Latin America. He’s also a big business generator for timeshares, which is under my umbrella on the issue of
marketing and communication for multi-owners, which makes Olímpia grow. Until then, we had our own hotels, Thermas Park Resort & Spa, the Hot Beach Resort condo-hotels and Celebration. All communication, marketing, strategy and commercial area are under my responsibility.
Despite all the recent challenges, you are investing in tourism with news and expansion in the business model. What does this moment mean?
We are very happy to be part of the revival of tourism. I see tourism as part of spiritual healing. Tourism is much bigger than relating to different cultures. It helps in mental and emotional health. It was difficult for everyone, I see tourism as much more than just something in the industry, job creation and business, but as a therapy for everyone.
What investments are being made in the park today? And what is already planned in 2022?
We are expanding, because the main generator of audiences and entertainment is the park. We receive an average of 8 thousand people a day, we want to grow the entertainment area to receive up to 12 thousand people. We have an investment of R$7 million for the first half of 2022 in the construction of new areas. We are in the strategy of taking brands for differentiation in experiences, events and products.
What motivated this investment in strategy with other brands?
It started in October of last year. Many brands were in need of spaces and platforms to exhibit, at a time when bars, restaurants and festivals were yet to happen, for example. It was an excellent alternative.
How many projects are closed?
We closed three contracts and have ten in negotiations. We closed with Heineken Brasil, with Coca-Cola FEMSA and Chandon Brasil. This is equivalent, in marketing investment by the brands, to something around R$ 5 million in five years. They are tailor made projects, such as the beach that Heineken developed. The new space in the beach area has four bungalows, a bar, a DJ booth and installable panels, all integrated into a lounge-style setting. With the theme of Ibiza Beach, Heineken extends the projection of its brand to the entire area of the complex. Since July, the company has been offering Amstel, Baden Baden and Eisenbahn beers in restaurants, bars, kiosks and vending machines, for example. We are also planning events like a Beer Fest. With Coca-Cola, we bring the Christmas motorcade to Olímpia, something very symbolic. And with Chandon, they are already implemented, all contracts are signed with Chandon and we are going to make a lounge focused on celebrations.
As far as you can see, most of the audience is families, always with children. How does the issue of access to these new spaces for experiences work?
In fact, the public at the complex is made up of families, I would say 90%. We have no space restrictions and people look for preferences. For example, we have the kids space and parents of younger children tend to stay more in these areas. This space with Heineken naturally attracts more young people, groups without children, with bungalows, DJ, wet bar, etc.
This whole movement came about in what context, was it an internal idea?
The project was born at home and we implemented and accelerated it. At the time, it was more in the tone of ‘let’s face it together’, very different from today’s scenario of scale, expansion, growth. But it took a large scale of industry, of business. We created a great platform for brand exposure.
What other sectors are you talking to in this regard?
This look at partnerships always happens due to the relevance of scale. So, in addition to beverages, beer and soft drinks, which are things we consume a lot in the summer, we are also talking to other areas such as telephony, protein and payment brands. We look for projects based on what we talk about, purposes and experiences. And we always want to maintain relevance. So, when we talk about credit card volume, 90% of our operations are on the card. We want to seek more and more interesting partnerships. There’s a lot of news coming.
WithThe is the communication structure to make all this demand viable?
Today we have approximately 48 people in sales and marketing. We have Hipi Oss, an agency from Goiás, specialized in the time sharing and multi-property model, and we have Duo, which does the creative and media part of hospitality and entertainment. We still work with Pmweb, a strategic partner more focused on e-commerce.
In this process, has the marketing area also grown? And how was the media mix?
We grew an average of 150% of investment in communication, this goes through that phase of changes. We have a marketing area twice as big as it was in 2019. I would say that currently 70% of the media is digital and tends to grow to 85% in 2022. Today 50% of the revenue generated for parks and resorts is call center, 20% it’s by the website. One of the challenges is to migrate the call center to e-commerce.
Given all this, is it possible to say that you have already returned to pre-pandemic levels?
I can say better. In May of this year, still with restrictions, but now we can operate with 100% following the protocols. In the second half, we are averaging 40% to 50% above the same period in 2019, without a pandemic. Thinking about occupation and revenue generated, we came back with great force. We became, for example, an alternative for the public who did not travel outside Brazil, for those who did not take a cruise or did not go to the Northeast. We started to receive an audience that didn’t know Olympia. Hopefully the market as a whole comes back strong.
How has all this that the company does in Olympia has impacted the image and business in the city?
We want to make Olímpia a destination like Gramado (RS) for the country, so we are launching schedules with flights included from other capitals. This goes through products, campaign and marketing. We want to strengthen the city from the standpoint of real estate development, employment and a primarily entertainment-based destination. National leisure is pushing the resumption.
