CEO of Club Med North America: “The ’No’ Does Not Exist”

0:00My name is Caroline Doyon and you're listening to Sweet Success.

0:09You've just checked in to Sweet Success. Join me, Katie Cline, for exclusive conversations with hotel executives, hospitality leaders, and industry innovators. Together, we'll uncover the strategies and techniques these masters of hospitality relentlessly refined. Whether you're already in the industry or just starting out, tune in every week to unlock the secret to your sweet success.

0:38Hello, everyone, and welcome back to another episode of Sweet Success. I'm your host, Katie Klein, and today I'm thrilled to be in person at Skift Global Forum in New York City with Carolyn Doyon. Carolyn is the president and CEO of Club Med North America and the Caribbean, leading more than 3 ,000 employees across the region. Club Med is the pioneer of the all-inclusive concept and today operates nearly 70 premium resorts around the world. She joined the company back in 2008 and since then has built an impressive career within, moving through sales and leadership roles before becoming president and CEO.

1:16With more than 25 years in the travel industry, Carolyn has had a front row seat to the evolution of the all-inclusive category. Carolyn, thank you so much for joining us today. Thank you for having me, Katie. It's such a pleasure to be with you. You joined Club Med in 2008, which sounds very recent until I realized it's almost 20 years ago. But take me back even further. What led to the role at Club Med in general? Okay. Okay, so I'm Montreal-based, so born and raised in Montreal, Quebec, and I'm French-Canadian. From a very young age, I was really interested about other culture, because we used to live in a very multicultural neighborhood.

2:01And I always liked to make new friends that were different from me. So I already had that curiosity early on. them and fast forward when I decided uh after uh high school and we have what we call CGF so it's between high school and university it's a program of two years what I wanted to do when I'm going to go to undergrad right we call it like that yeah um I went into psychology and I realized that psychology was wonderful but it was not my calling so through my my uh study at that time I decided that I wanted to pivot into management and tourism. So I decided to change. And it was at that moment, at that moment that I realized that this was what I really wanted to do.

2:48So fast forward a couple of years later, after I graduated, I had to do an internship. And my school was very close to Clomed. And I always had Clomed in my mind because Clomed was, back in the days, very popular in terms of, you know, in terms of television, you know, and so on. Oh, like the commercials. The commercials. Of course. I remember watching them and being like, wow, I need to be there. Exactly. So I grew up with this, you know. And And finally, when I was looking for an internship, there was nothing at Clomet. But I went to knock on airline and I was taken for an internship at Delta Airlines.

3:32And a fun fact is that at that time, I did not speak one word of English. But in French, because we're based in Montreal, they asked me, do you speak English in French? And I said, yes. Did you say oui? Oui. I said oui. And from that moment on, this is when my tourism journey has started. And fast forward, I did over five years. Yes, over five years in the airline. I progressed quite rapidly. I learned English within four months, more or less. And I apologize. My English is still not perfect. Your English is excellent. Do not apologize. But, and after I decided, okay, I was, you know, already at a level of management in operation at the airport.

4:20Wow. It used to be called Orval. I was 26 years old. I said, okay, that can be it. So I wanted to pivot. So I decided to go into retail to truly understand what was, you know, tourism, hospitality, but all the facets, all the sides of this wonderful industry. So the travel retail side. The travel retail side. Exactly. and through this afterwards I discovered that Clomed you know was looking for for someone and I started my career in in sales and again I still had in the back of my mind after all these years that you know Clomed was such a good brand the pioneer of all inclusive so this is how I got my if you want the calling of hospitality but also for Clomed as a brand first of all I love the fact that you started in psychology because I do think I was a fashion merchandising major in university, which no offense to fashion merchandising, kind of a useless degree unless you work in fashion, which I did, but I had a psych minor.

5:23And I always think back, I wouldn't change anything now, but I think psychology, business, finance, these more broader categories that are existing in every aspect of every business should be what we're all studying in uni, And then we can find our path because I'm sure so much of your psychology training actually does influence not only how you're thinking about the consumer, how you're thinking about leading your team and your employees. Like it is really important. Do you think about any of that still? I do. But I realized quite quickly that it wasn't for me. So I did. In terms of being like a psychologist.

6:03But you're still using it. But I was telling you earlier that in Quebec, we have a two years, which is between high school and university. And I studied social science. This is what really helped me still today, you know, with everything, every, you know, side of the business. It can be in leadership. It can be in motherhood. It can be with talking with clients. It can be in all really, really, really completely every side of what I do today. So I'm very grateful for that. And it gives you a lot of, you can take a step back and you can really see things differently than if, you know, I didn't have this type of classes, which I probably won't react the same way.

6:49Yeah. I think you're completely right. Before we were recording, we were talking about motherhood. I do actually think what you just said, in a way, being a parent is just like rebranding things and making them seem more appealing. And we're going to get into the whole Club Med story and why it is so appealing for families. But I think that there is some magic in that. If you know that social science aspect of how people respond to things, it's, like you said, equally important in all facets of life. When you talk about your pivots, going from working for Delta to travel retail to now working for Club Med, was that all intentional at the time?

7:30Did you have this master plan of I need to learn every facet of the industry so that I can end up where I ultimately want to be? Or is it something more when we look back, we're like, oh, it all unfolded the way that we wanted it to? I wish I can say yes, it was all planned, but no, it wasn't. I don't think anyone can. I think when people say that, I don't know. You know, when you graduate, you're already very young. And I think that what's coming next is your first job, your first experience, your first role. And after that, it's another, you know, you take from this and after you see, well, where would I want to go next and so on.

8:06So I think it's seizing the right opportunity when it comes. Most importantly for me, and that's what I learned from Delta Airlines, was that don't be afraid to raise your hand, even though you know that you might not be ready. And you know that maybe you don't have all the qualification needed or expertise for the role, right? and because I was able to work for an American company okay based in Montreal but without speaking originally the language now I knew that you don't have to have the perfect moment the perfect expertise the perfect knowledge the perfect everything in order to raise your hand so this is what has guided me through my career and not having anything really planned it's such a beautiful explanation of that because that's exactly what you did do you speak English yep I'll figure it out later.

8:58I think it's great. And I do think we're hearing that more and more, but it is a really important reminder of sometimes you just have to jump in and then you'll figure it out after. And also sometimes you don't know what you don't know until you try. Like we were talking about, you wouldn't have known psychology wasn't for you if you didn't study it. I studied fashion. I worked in fashion. There was a lot of great things about it. But ultimately I was like, what's this travel and hospitality and tourism sector? That's got my eye. Do I wish I knew that at 18? Sure. But we didn't. And I only would know it by trying and not liking things along the way.

9:33So you eventually start at Club Med in 2008. You had built it up in your head to be this incredible brand. You get there. Tell me about that first role. And more importantly, what that evolution has looked like since then. So when I arrived, I took the direction of the sales for Eastern Canada. And that same year, actually, I took the direction of the country. So it was great because I was from a commercial background and an operational background. So I was leading all the departments in terms of transportation, marketing, and so on. So that's from what I was doing. In terms of Clomed as a brand, Clomed was created in 1950.

10:21So I already had a couple of years of experience into the all-inclusive market. And from there, our previous president at the time has decided that it was time for Clamed to do brand repositioning, meaning that it was in 2004. I came four years later, but in 2004, Clamed started their premium cycle, meaning that we have renovated, we have closed, we have opened new resorts. And now to become 20 years later, it took us 20 years to become a premium brand. So all of our resorts are either premium or what we call luxury or exclusive collection. So when I arrived in 2008, that shift was already started.

11:10So I was able to include myself and lead the sales team and contact center and so on through this different phase of Clomed, which was wonderful. And for a leader and also for your team, when you see the brand, it's iconic what Clomed has been doing for all these years, keeping the same Clomed spirit. because we can say an all-inclusive is an all-inclusive, but if you really think about it, Clement is a part. It's French root, you know, and also the Clement spirit, which today we kept for 76 years now. So we remained true to our brand, and I was able to be an active participant of that repositioning of the brand.

12:05So it was a wonderful time. The beauty of Clomed is that the brand and the company gives you the opportunity to grow within. So from early on, I was telling you that I started in April. In that same year, I took the direction of Canada. So I was already being promoted quite quickly. We have a great Université des talents. So we promote from in-house. We train from in-house. and we are very multicultural. So if you are mobile, you can travel all over the world. I think that's one of the best things about our industry. Exactly. And all of these were resonating with who I am as a person. So I said, oh, maybe this is a good fit for me.

12:49And I fall in love with the brand. I fall in love with the value of the company. And I fall in love with the people because the people makes what Clement is, right? Absolutely. And especially a workforce, if you're going to stay someplace for a long period of time, it's not just as simple as liking the people that you work with. But are you in an environment that promotes from within, as you mentioned, or wants to innovate, wants to lead and isn't just saying we've been doing really good work. Let's keep doing that same work. When you talk about the Club Med spirit, what exactly does that mean?

13:22How does a guest experience that on property? So Club Med spirit, it's something that is not tangible. So when you arrive into a resort, our gentle organizer, our geo that we call our international. So they come from all over the world. They speak many languages and they are your host. So they are the one who, the moment you arrive, they welcome you. They are the one that you will spend your week with. You can become friends with a sailing instructor, which is a geo. You can go and do yoga classes. It's a geo also. So all this has become like, we call it a resort, but it's also a village. So the GEO and the chief of village, which is the general manager, is the heart and soul of every resort that Lament has.

14:12And again, they are giving the impulse and the rhythm on how the vacation will be. So because it's multicultural, there's a lot of different, you know, background, nationalities. We welcome clients from all over the world. So it creates a spirit. And again, all of this, I cannot, you know, it's not, we cannot touch it. You need to live it. You feel it. And when you feel it and when you experience it, because now everything about traveling is experience. And Clement understood this over 75 years ago. So when you leave a hotel, a property, a resort, you won't even remember what color was the carpet or what color was the wall.

14:57What you will remember is how you felt during this vacation. And the climate spirit is the master of this because it makes you feel first extremely welcome, makes you feel very safe because you're in a very safe environment. It makes you feel that you don't have to worry about a thing because it's all handle. And it makes you feel that you're in charge of spending your free time the way you want to spend it. And you do this through all these great people around you. And we always say that, Clement, you're never alone. You can be alone if you decide to, but you're never alone. So it's a wonderful, you know, experience to have this on your vacation and even more so as parents.

15:53Hospitality doesn't happen by accident. It's the result of systems that let you focus on the guest relationship instead of the administration. Logify gives independent hosts and small property managers the tools to do exactly that. a direct booking website, reservation management, connections to Airbnb, Vrbo, and Booking.com, and guest communication running all from one place. And here's something we haven't been able to offer before. Logify is opening up a discount on monthly plans specifically for Sweet Success listeners. Code SweetSuccess20 gives you 20 % off any monthly Logify plan for a full year.

16:28It's never been done. It's not a trial. It's a full year at 20 % off. Build monthly so you can build the right setup without committing to annual billing up front. Use code SWEETSUCCESS20. That's sweet like hotel suite. SUCCESS20 to get started today.

16:50I was going to say, as you were saying this, you're talking about safety, about kind of this bubble, about getting to know people and really kind of feel as if you're being looked after. As a mom right away, I'm like, where do I sign up? That sounds amazing. Now, on the flip side of that, what I'm also hearing is you're creating this world, almost this bubble. So how do you then think about bringing the destination that you're in within or encouraging people to go out? How do you kind of find that perfect balance? It's a great question because there's perception about the all-inclusive that we want to keep people inside, but it's not the case.

17:30I can only speak for Clamed, but it's not the case for us. When Clamed comes into a destination, first, we're often the first to arrive, the pioneer of a destination. So we become, we truly becoming part of the ecosystem of where we're coming, you know, in terms of sourcing product locally, in terms of helping the community that welcome us. And in terms of us also blending within the surrounding we're not coming in to impose but more to blend already we have this knitted uh you know with the community right after even more so now but it's always been in our dna that people travel to live experience and how do you want to live an experience if it's not to go forward to where you are.

18:21So we have great excursion, of course, program. We have people, of course, from the islands, from the country where we operate that works with us. And we encourage our guests to go outside. We do encourage them. First, it's wonderful for them to discover. We partnership with people locally for excursions. And so it helps, you know, in terms of revenue for the community. And after, let's say it, when people are not necessarily in the resort, they don't eat, they don't drink. So in terms of, you know, it's a win-win. They are discovering, you know, and. Well, and also with you guys as the facilitator of those excursions, sometimes if someone is not a seasoned traveler or is feeling nervous about visiting a new place, it sounds like you're then giving them that peace of mind that even though this is not operated by us or you know you have a local guide or whatever it might be we've vetted it we're taking care of you still yes exactly all inclusive was very historically synonymous with beach vacations right like you think about like a umbrella drink and a chair and actually that sounds really lovely to me so i'm not knocking that at all but what i think is really interesting about club med particularly is you are bringing that model to all types of destinations so can you talk a little bit about where you are today and maybe some of the unexpected places you're looking to pop up well i am happy to say that uh we have just opened last july our first beach and safari resort and i was there just last week i flew back for skiff wow thank you and uh and i would have come to join you there though next time um so we did the grand opening last week and it was wonderful because you were talking about how we uh make our guests discover a destination this is the perfect example yeah first it's because uh it's the first surf school in the world so you go there you can learn to surf and so on so it's a bit beachside property on the other side about four hours and a half and by driving or take a flight we offer a safari and it's really in a reserve and you can see the big five so a truly a different experience all-inclusive so when we thought about all-inclusive in the past there was a lot of uh pre-concept ideas and you know it's not the case anymore so um our resort in south africa is the first demonstration of that This is quite recent.

21:04But if we go back, Club Med is offering all-inclusive, also in the mountain product, ski, for instance. So many people on this side of the Atlantic think of Club Med just for the beach and, you know, the sun. While our most one-third of our portfolio is mountain resort. Yes. So we have resorts in the Alps, French, Swiss, and Italy. Italy. And we have four resorts of ski in Japan. We have one in Quebec, Canada, dear to me. And we're building a new one in Quebec right now, Mont Tremblant, which is scheduled to open in Q4 28. So all that says is that today, when you look at the very competitive landscape of the all-inclusive, one thing that set us really apart, the safari that I just told you, of course, but also our mountain offer.

22:00Today, nobody offers all-inclusive at the mountain like Clomet do. And we have also a beautiful sailing ship, which is Clomet 2. So it's a five mast, beautiful sailing ship. And this, it's actually, we call it the yacht. And this offers you a cruise like you haven't done before. First, it's very small. It's about 300 people. Oh, wow. 300, 350 people. And it's an all-inclusive. So it's an all-inclusive on the water. The fact that it's a little bit smaller gives the opportunity to go into destination, that big ship. So you can see that the all-inclusive, we're talking about a sailing experience.

22:47We're talking about safari. And we're talking about mountain. And we're talking about beach. Right. So where it's a big variety of, you know, of experience that people and this is what the traveler is looking for today. The 300 number two, I think, is small enough to attract people who traditionally would say, I don't want to cruise. I saw that with the Ritz-Carlton Yacht Collection, for example, when they launched similarly sized. Do you think you will do more cruising in the future? Right now, we are navigating with our climate too. I love that. And we never say no. But right now, we have a very precise development plan.

23:30So today we have 69 resorts. That's including our climate. When you look forward, in 2030, we want to go up to 85 resorts. And in 2035, we want to go up to 100 resorts. So within that, you know, development plan today, there's no ship. But of course, we never know. And we're always on the lookout for opportunity. What is driving that number? Is it that those are the amount of destinations that you think make sense for you to be? Is it purely a growth number that you want to hit? it's a growth number that we want to hit. We believe that there's a huge market, as we can see with the competition arriving in the all-inclusive market.

24:19Yes. There is still full potential for climate to grow. And we want to continue to tap on that potential. And now that, you know, we have the win in our sale, let's say, then it's the right moment to do it. and the growth will come from every business unit because we're split by business units. So there will be a resort in China. There will be a resort in Japan. There will be a resort in Malaysia. There will be a resort in Canada. And closer to us, we're going to bring our first U.S. resort in the United States. Where to? St. Croix, the U.S. Virgin Island. That sounds so lovely. Already in construction.

25:03It's a takeover. and we already started to renovate it and it's scheduled to open in November next year. Okay. And it will be an exclusive collection. So the highest range of our resort. Right. And it will all be junior suites and it will be wonderful. I bet. Wonderful because it's the big return of Clomed in the biggest market in the world. And that sets the tone. You were asking what is driving, you know, the road. That set the tone for us. What's next? what's next. So our goal is to create another mountain hub in this part of the world. So we're going to have two in Canada. And if you read between the lines, we're looking at, you know, skis in also in the United States, eventually a little bit too early to tell, but we're working hard on it.

25:54Yes, exactly. Well, and you touched on it there too, the all-inclusive category. It had for a while, and I think it's starting to change, almost a negative connotation. where you think about maybe food that's not authentic to the location or watered down drinks or something that was only for budget travelers. But I imagine, as you said, you're seeing almost every brand across every price point dip their toe in the water, try to get into the space, launch a new brand in the space. And you guys must be sitting here saying, we've been telling you guys that this is what works. We also hear time and time again, travelers are tired of feeling nickel and dimed.

26:35We don't want to see the resort fee. We don't want to take out our wallet each time. And that's kind of what you said at the beginning. We want to feel taken care of. We want to feel like we've already booked. We've already made the decisions. Now we just get to say, how am I feeling right now? Do I want to go learn to surf or am I going to take this yoga class? So how are you thinking about that evolution as a category, having been in the category, leading the category from the beginning? Well, obviously, we knew that it was the path that we should continue to go on. And we have always, like I was telling you earlier, been true to our brand and been true to our product.

27:11After it's true that the expectations of our clients are changing. So obviously we adapt ourselves with the changing of the expectations. So hence the culinary offer for us being French Roots is a big part of our journey because French, They love having the cuisine. So it's always been there, but even more so now because other components are coming in the equation. So one of the most challenging things that we have in operation is food waste. Because it's important that we talk about that. Because before, buffet was associated to abundance and a lot of waste and cheap. Clomed, we do this differently.

27:58First, we have a very noble product. We use locally sourced product. We also have our clombin marker. So if you go, you will have one night foie gras. You will have oyster. You will have, you know, so very elaborate cuisine. But what we do to serve it is we do single plated. So we control a little bit the quantity. It allows you to present it very well. And after the clients, you know, doesn't have to, you know, things. So we change actually the way we offer our buffet. Like we just did a new concept where in Punta Cana in Dominican Republic, we just redid the center of the resort. And we, the first one in the world, we have redone completely our culinary offer.

28:46Now it's like a worldwide market. So when you enter, you will have the Mediterranean corner. And that Mediterranean is made with chefs who cook in front of you, who serve you by the plate, and you can have your appetizer all the way to your dessert if you want to do the full Mediterranean experience. And the same thing with the Asian corner where you can do the full experience. So this allows us to offer cuisine from all over the world for all the tasted. But it's absolutely not like the conception that people had before about the buffet. It's also you can personalize and say, I don't want this or I want more of that.

29:25You can really solve that issue. Exactly. And personalization is a key also for any brand and also in the all-inclusive, you know, to differentiate yourself from others. So for Clomed, while being true to our brand, we continue to evolve to make sure that we are ahead of the curve, like we were 76 years ago, but also to make sure that we are advancing along with the customer expectation. I'll use, you know, now a lot of people are vegan. Many of them have, you know, dietary restrictions. Our chefs are trained to adapt our offer to this type of client. So you will have a vegan option, several of them, but it will be very nicely displayed.

30:14Allergy now and so on. So all of this, I'm using the cuisine because it's easy for us, but it's the same thing with the sports. Clomet is the biggest sport school in the world. I was talking to you about the all-inclusive in ski. Yeah. But when you ski at Clomet, you have your lessons and your ski lift included. And we can children as a four. Wow. So imagine you can literally bring your daughter. I would need to be in that class because I've never skied. So that actually would be really appealing to me because it's like I can have this apres ski moment. And actually we taught to ski as well. Exactly.

30:46Exactly. And we do it for every level. So again, convenience, easy, and it's part of our package. When we take this to a beach product, I'll give you an example. At some point, tennis was very popular. And I know I might have some enemies here, but I'm sorry. But we saw that pickleball was coming years before it really become what pickleball is today. So at some point, we've taken the decision at some point to remove some tennis courts and to transform them to pickleball because we knew that this will be an up and coming trend. So while remaining true to who we are, biggest sports school in the world, we have adapted our product as we went along and we will continue to do so without losing who we are, you know, at the core.

31:36Carolyn, I want to ask you the last three questions I ask every guest. And the first is, what was the best hospitality experience that you have ever had? I have, I had several. I cannot single one out. But what I can tell you is that for me, when a service is delivered without you having to ask for it, you understand that they get the real service and personalization. And I was telling you earlier, personalized, customized, and all that is extremely important. And it will become even more so because we're going to be supported by a lot of technology. so us from an operational standpoint we need to be able to deliver this so to just give you a very small example if I have a coffee machine and they put you a bunch of pods and you can I take two or three coffee a day you can tell which coffee I like if the day after I have five of them and they took away the others without me asking then you know they got it so it's little things like that I can go much further in example I completely agree.

32:42I think you get... Yeah, that personalization to paying attention to you as the human, not just my standard says to refill with this. Tree, you know, brown. Right, right. On the flip side of that, what was the worst hospitality experience that you've ever had? I think like everyone, I had several, unfortunately. Same. But the good thing is that each time I came back to my team and I said, this is what happened and this is what we're going to do to make sure this doesn't happen to us. So I turn each and every one of them, when it's relevant, of course, to say, you know what? This is real situation and this is not what our brand's going to deliver.

33:23So I use this more as a, you know, training and, you know, operational, yes, skills, let's say. I love that. Turning lemons into lemonade. Exactly. Final question for you. What does hospitality mean to you? And is there anyone that you think has mastered it? It could be a person. It could be a brand. Can't be Club Med, though. I know we were going to say them. Hospitality for me is the human interaction. We are in the service industry. The no does not exist. It could be no the answer, but you will say it another way, you know, and you will find an option. So for me, when it comes to hospitality, when the brand understands that it's a people business, it's a service business, and it's a customer-driven business, already you've reached this.

34:20One story that I was very fascinated with is the Ritz-Carlton. The Ritz-Carlton, you probably read the story, but at some point years ago, the CEO of Ritz-Carlton give$1 ,000 to all of his employees to say, you use this at your own convenience for the clients to fix the problem. Believe it or not, it worked because Ritz-Carlton, you might like or you might not like, but it's a symbol of hospitality. and at the end the employees didn't even spend that one thousand dollar but a lot many many of their guests were extremely happy with the outcome so for me it's a great example that sometimes you need to invest a little but you get so much more and you know at the end carolyn thank you so much thank you katsi all right everyone it's time for today's sweet summary where i break down the key insights and actionable takeaways from today's conversation.

35:25Carolyn's story is a great reminder that all of our experiences in life have value. Even if they don't seem directly related to where we ultimately want to end up, they shape how we see the world, the decisions we make, and the opportunities we're willing to pursue. Her curiosity about other cultures from young age, her studies in psychology, and particularly her willingness to take opportunities before she felt ready have helped shape the leader she is today. She applied for a job that required her to speak English. The only problem was she didn't, but she went for it anyway. And after landing that job, just four months later, she was fluent.

36:06Carolyn reminds us all, raise your hand even when you don't feel ready. And I think there's an interesting parallel between that mindset and the Club Med spirit Carolyn spoke so passionately about. Club Med has undergone a remarkable transformation over the past two decades, but throughout that evolution, the company has remained committed to the elements that made it special in the first place. The international workforce, the relationship between guests and team members, the feeling of being welcomed into a community rather than simply checking into a resort. Growth and innovation don't have to come at the expense of your identity.

36:44In fact, knowing what makes your brand special can give you the confidence to push boundaries, explore new opportunities, and evolve in ways you may have never imagined. And I think that willingness to challenge the limits of what's possible applies just as much to Club Med as it does to Carolyn's own career. Not because everything is possible, but because there's almost always another way to approach a challenge or another solution to explore. As Carolyn put it, in true hospitality, the no does not exist. And that concludes another episode of Sweet Success. If you enjoyed today's conversation, please subscribe, rate, and review the show.

37:24We all know how important those five-star reviews are. I also want to say a massive thank you to each and every one of you for tuning in. It means the absolute world to me. And I'd love to hear from you. If you have ideas for future guests, new topics to cover, or even just want to say hi, don't be shy. Message me through our website, sweetsuccesspodcast.com or on social media at sweet success podcast. That's sweet like hotel sweet. Once again, I'm your host, Katie Klein, and I'm super excited to see you all next week.