Content area
Full text
Travel Agent took advantage of a rare opportunity to chat with the two founders of Karisma Hotels & Resorts at their Miami office and was given some major scoops regarding future hotel developments.
WHEN Travel Agent was told that the two founders of Karisma Hotels & Resorts, Rafael Feliz and Lubo Krstajic, were going to give us the first interview they ever conducted together, we somehow assumed we would be chatting with a couple of shy, soft-spoken, reserved gentlemen. As soon as we stepped foot in the company's Miami office, however, we knew from the bright colors, the erase boards with brain storm- ing ideas, the chic layout and the countless number of Millennials punching on keyboards or fielding phone calls that the two-headed monster behind Karisma's success might be shy about a lot of topics, but travel was not going to be one of them.
Thankfully, we were right.
Feliz, the company's CEO, and Krstajic, executive vice president of sales and marketing, gave Travel Agent a scoop fest including what destinations we can expect the Nickelodeon Hotels brand to expand to in the future as well as the skinny on a massive, 1,200-room resort development to be built between Montego Bay and Ocho Rios, Jamaica, by 2018.
We break down those stories as well as other topics that arose during the roughly two-hour sit down with two of the sharpest hoteliers we spoke to all year.
Nickelodeon Hotels to Expand To Europe and Latin America
In March, Travel Agent was the first to tell you about a new hotel brand after Karisma Hotels & Resorts and Viacom International Media Networks (VIMN), a division ofViacom Inc., signed a landmark agreement to develop Nickelodeon Hotels.
A Gourmet Inclusive collection of luxurious familyfriendly properties, Nickelodeon Hotels will represent the first and only international hotels for Nickelodeon, one of the most globally recognized and widely distributed multimedia brands for kids.
The milestone deal included plans to debut Nickelodeon Hotels with the opening of Nickelodeon Punta Cana in the Dominican Republic in late 2016. A second Nickelodeon Hotel will open in Mexico shortly thereafter.
But that's just the tip of the iceberg.
After the Dominican Republic and Mexico properties are up and running, Feliz and Krstajic said the...