Dive Brief:

• Holiday Inn Club Vacations Inc., a resort and vacation ownership company, announced on Tuesday its acquisition of four beachside resorts in Mexico. The company is an independently owned partner of InterContinental Hotels Group.
• Holiday Inn Club Vacations purchased the four properties — The Royal Sands and The Royal Cancun in Cancun, The Royal Haciendas in Riviera Maya and Grand Residences by Royal Resorts in Puerto Morelos — from Royal Resorts, a Mexican company that offers resorts with villas, kids’ clubs and family-friendly activities. 
• The acquisitions mark the brand’s first international expansions in one of the world’s fastest-growing family travel destinations.  

Dive Insight:

John Staten, Holiday Inn Club Vacations’ president and CEO, said in a statement that the acquisition is in line with the company’s growth roadmap, noting the Mexican Caribbean is “one of the fastest growing family travel destinations in the world.” 

The acquired properties will add more than 850 villas to the brand’s portfolio. Holiday Inn Club Vacations expects their full integration to take roughly a year, and the resorts will continue to operate normally during the transition. 

The four resorts make up most of the Cancun-based Royal Resorts’ related companies and corporate operations. In a separate agreement, the U.K.-based Tortuga Resorts acquired the entities that own and operate the remaining Royal Resorts properties, which are The Royal Islander and Royal Uno All Inclusive Resort & Spa, both in Cancun. 

Mexico’s antitrust commission has already reviewed and approved the deal. Terms of the acquisition were not disclosed.

“Holiday Inn Club Vacations Incorporated continues to seek additional growth opportunities in both domestic and international markets,” Ashley Pipa, the company’s corporate communications manager, told Hotel Dive. “The company is dedicated to continuously providing new destinations to its owners, Club members and guests.”

Expedia Group’s Traveler Value Index found that in the second quarter of 2022 international family travel had recovered to pre-pandemic levels, accounting for 15% of total travelers. And third-quarter data from the same year found international family travel up 90% from the year before. It also found that 58% of travelers with children were planning a trip abroad within the next year.  

Meanwhile, the 2022 U.S. Family Travel Survey — conducted by the Family Travel Association in conjunction with New York University’s Tisch Center of Hospitality — found beaches to be families’ top travel destinations, with 66% saying they’d prefer vacation at the beach. The survey also found that family travel had rebounded to pre-pandemic levels. 

Excluding the newly acquired properties, Holiday Inn Club Vacations has 28 resorts and 8,822 open villas. It’s currently developing another seaside resort in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, which is expected to open in 2024.