Club Med is rejigging its organisation in Asia-Pacific (APAC), creating two specialised business units – APAC Markets and APAC Resorts – under a regional scope covering Greater China, Japan, South Korea, India, South-east Asia and the Pacific come July 1.
By giving weight to both markets and resort operations in APAC, the move appears to be an acknowledgement of the rising importance of the region’s outbound markets, on top of its ongoing recognition of destination potentials.
“Club Med is in a growth acceleration phase with the openings of three to five resorts per year,” commented Henri Giscard d’Estaing, president of Club Med. “This significant moment in our development requires us to focus on our growth drivers – sales and marketing (for consumer awareness), and to accelerate the opening of new resorts and strengthen the in-resort guest experience across APAC.”
In a statement, the French operator of all-inclusive resorts said the reorganisation will “bring the best teams closer to guests (in the region) and deliver better customer experience”.
Based in Shanghai, Xavier Desaulles, CEO of APAC Markets business unit, will lead the commercial teams across Greater China, Japan, South Korea, South-east Asia and Pacific markets.
He was previously CEO of the East and South Asia Pacific markets since 2016. Desaulles was the regional managing director for South-east Asia, India and the Middle-East at the Rémy Cointreau Group prior to his position at Club Med.
Leading the operations and development of the resorts across APAC and also based in Shanghai, is Jean-Charles Fortoul, CEO of APAC Resorts.
With over 18 years of experience in the hospitality industry, Fortoul has held senior leadership positions at Club Med since 2002, managing various markets across Europe, the Middle East and South-east Asia.
Previously he was the vice president of operations for East and South Asia & Pacific, and vice president of sales emerging countries of South-east Asia, managing nine holiday resorts and six commercial countries across Thailand, Indonesia, the Philippines, Vietnam & Myanmar.
Gino Andreetta, who developed Club Med’s sales and operations in China including the opening of four new resorts as CEO of Greater China, will move to Lyon, France as of September 2019 to lead the Europe, Africa and France Resorts as CEO.
To continue being based in Singapore, Vijay Sharma, the country director for Singapore and Malaysia, will now have an expanded job scope overseeing the region as general manager of South-east Asia, which Club Med interprets to include emerging markets and India.
