Resorts are increasingly attractive to institutional investors. Funds like CIG, a Singaporean sovereign wealth fund, and insurance companies Swiss Life and Aviva, are becoming more active in the resort space, according to industry experts.
Stoneweg Hospitality, established in 2021, currently owns a portfolio of seven hotels across Spain, which have been repositioned through managerial turnarounds, capex programmes and reflagging strategies. Stoneweg’s managing director Miguel Casas commented: “We like resorts because we can add value, more than in cities.”
Regarding investment in resorts, he said: “There isn’t a long-term capital majority in resorts – but it’s coming. We are long term investors - we do HMAs, take the full P&L, the full risk. With some deals, we co-invest, but we are not partnering with permanent capital yet. We are waiting for the permanent capital to come in.”
Club Med transformation
David Vely, VP development MEA at Club Med, added: “In 2018 and 2019, resorts were not really what people wanted to invest in. Then the Covid-19 pandemic happened and, suddenly, resorts were flavour of the month.”
While city hotels took longer to recover after the pandemic, resorts came “straight out of the gate running,” he said. “You analyse it after the fact and - yes - people wanted to go on holiday and be with their families. It was about experiences, sport, and outdoor activities. We were already doing all that. We benefited tremendously, and the trend has never stopped. Last year was our best ever.”
Club Med reported global business volume of €2,090m in 2024, a seven percent increase on the previous year. Bookings for H1 2025 are up 5.7 percent with double-digit growth for H2, the group said.
While his company, founded in 1950, is a pure resorts player, Vely noted that several mainstream brands, notably Hyatt with its $2.7 billion acquisition of Apple Leisure Group, have entered the resort space for the first time.
Club Med recently completed a 25-year transformation that involved disposing of 110 resorts out of a total of 140. Vely explained: “The company was in a complicated situation. We were the most expensive midscale offering – a terrible space to be in – so we moved upscale, which followed the market trend.”
Today, Club Med has around 70 resorts, all of which are premium or luxury. The newest resorts are in Spain, the French Alps, Japan, and China; Club Med is primarily owned by the Chinese conglomerate Fosun.
New destinations
Barrière Group is another longstanding French company, operating in the luxury resorts sector. Founded in 1912, it has been wholly owned by the Barrière family for four generations.
Stephane Baghdassarian, SVP development - hotels and F&B at Barrière, said that traditionally, luxury operators have clustered in the same locations, but young affluent travellers today want to discover new destinations.
Under the leadership of Alexandre Barrière and Joy Desseigne-Barrière, both in their thirties, the company is developing a new resort in Lapland, Finland; and a horse-riding experience in the Saudi Arabian desert.
F&B partnerships
Baghdassarian underlined how creative and collaborative approaches to F&B can add value and increase revenue. He said: “We develop our own F&B brands, we acquire brands, or sign franchise agreements.”
Barrière has a majority stake in Loulou Group, a luxury restaurant brand specialising in southern French cuisine. Opening the Loulou restaurant in the Hôtel Barrière Les Neiges Courchevel this winter resulted in a 300 percent increase in F&B revenue and a 5 percent increase in rooms revenue, said Baghdassarian.
A franchise agreement with Beefbar, a high-end steakhouse concept, is in operation at Hôtel Barrière Le Carl Gustaf in Saint-Barth, with plans for another at Barrière’s Marrakech resort.
Wellness co-branding
The co-branding trend also applies to wellness. Barrière Group partners with Dogpound, a high-end fitness service based in New York City, to offer personal training and wellness experiences at Fouquet’s New York. Dogpound provides one-on-one personal training sessions for hotel guests.
Another partnership is with Augustinus Bader, a brand of science-based skin and haircare products.
Baghdassarian commented: “People want to take home enjoyable memories, of course, but also, when it comes to fitness and wellness they want results; treatments that are long lasting, so you go back home with a result, something that is noticeable.”
Seasonality
Traditionally, resort holidays fell into two camps: skiing in the winter and beaches in the summer. But rising global temperatures are making summers in the mountains an increasingly attractive alternative to scorching beaches.
Vely at Club Med said: “We are trying to push this. Our winter resorts used to be idle during the summer but the experience you get there is amazing, with all type of activities – hiking, mountain biking, white-water rafting - and because the asset has already been profitable in the winter, that enables us to have an attractive price point. It enables us to open the funnel. It’s still upscale and luxury but a different time of the year. It’s a gateway.”
On the future, Vely said: “Our expansion plans are very moderate. We grow three to five resorts a year only. You don’t need to be in the rat race to do well.”
All quotes taken from the ‘Rethinking resorts: new concepts and emerging trends for all seasons’ panel session at IHIF EMEA 2025, moderated by James Chappel, global business director, Horwath HTL