Interview: Apple Leisure’s CEO on the Future of the Luxury All-Inclusive Vacation
Skift Take
Apple Leisure Group is competing with cruise lines to attract the business of American travelers to Mexico and the Caribbean. Like cruise lines trying to win over first-time cruisers, Apple Leisure Group is attempting to get Americans who have never had a passport before to get off the couch and experience their first foreign vacations.
Alejandro Zozaya became CEO of Apple Leisure Group in late 2012 as Bain Capital invested in the formerly family owned travel wholesaler.
By the fall of 2013, Apple Leisure Group had become a vertically integrated packaged travel and hotel management company, specializing in Mexico and the Caribbean, as it acquired Travel Impressions from American Express and CheapCaribbean.com, adding them to its existing portfolio of Apple Vacations, AMResorts, Amstar and Unlimited Vacation Club.
Skift spoke with Zozaya about the opportunities and challenges of integrating the brands and simultaneously operating as a wholesaler, distributor and hotel management company in Mexico and the Caribbean.
An edited version of the interview follows:
Skift: Apple Leisure Group has been undergoing a transformation after the last couple of years. What did this buying spree do for you?
Alejandro Zozaya: The doubling up of our distribution not only allowed us to be more successful on the resort
