Skift Take
Hotels in Venezuela admit that even with promotions they struggle to increase consumer demand, but they are still trying to address declining occupancy through more active marketing of their products. The results remain to be seen.
Editor's Note: Skift launched a new series, Gateway, as we broaden our news coverage geographically with first-hand, original stories from correspondents embedded in cities around the world.
We are featuring regular reports several times per week from Beijing, Singapore, Caracas and Cape Town, and look for us to add other cities soon. Gateway Caracas, for example, signifies that the reporter is writing from that city although her coverage of the business of travel will meander to other locales in the region. Read about the series here and check out all the stories in the series here.
Hotel promotions only go so far.
"In Venezuela, promotions help us prevent the precipitous drop in demand and minimize losses," says Gustavo Jarussi, vice president of the Venezuelan Association of Five Star Hotels and regional director of the Pestana chain for Venezuela, Colombia and Cuba. “Clearly, we will not get back to the higher demand levels of the past by just relying on promotions."
Indeed, the economic crisis has affected th
