MADRID — Grupo Piñero, parent company of Bahia Principe, reported an 8% sales increase in 2017 over the year 2016, marking its sixth consecutive year of growth.
According to its 2017 financial results, which were revealed at the International Tourism Fair (FITUR) in Madrid, the company also enjoyed a 5% EBITDA increase from 2016 as well as gross operating profit of US$250 million. Bahia Principe Hotels & Resorts, which accounts for 72% of the family-owned business, achieved 82% occupancy for the year.
Following the appointment of Encarna Piñero as Chief Executive Officer, and the passing of company founder and previous president, Pablo Piñero, the group maintained a business strategy that focused on conservative financial management and organic growth.
Grand Bahia Principe Jamaica
“Our results last year are the best tribute we can pay to my father, and it would have been impossible without the family of more than 15,000 professionals who make up Grupo Piñero,” said Encarna Piñero. “In 2018 we embark on a new brand architecture to simplify the way we organize ourselves and strengthen the operations of each of our businesses, while in the second half of the year we will open our 27th hotel, in Tenerife. This will be a year of continuity and consolidation of our leading position in the holiday segment.”
Bahia Principe made the greatest contribution to the group’s sales in 2017, accounting for 72% of the total. The brand attributed this 6.5% increase over 2016 to an 82% average occupancy rate throughout the year at 24 properties in the Dominican Republic, Mexico, Jamaica and Spain.
In late 2018, Bahia Principe will unveil its 25th hotel, Fantasia Bahia Principe Tenerife in Costa de San Miguel, Tenerife, featuring 372 rooms and representing a US$98 million investment, for which the brand did not require any bank loans.
Luxury Bahia Principe Fantasia
Soltour, the brand’s tour operating arm, celebrated its 40th anniversary in 2017 with an increase in sales of 10.6% over the previous year. The brand expanded operations to two new destinations in Portugal – Saïdia and Sardinia – and in 2018 will add Agadir, Morocco. Also in 2017, Coming2, Grupo Piñero’s tourist reception and at-destination services unit, became the only destination management company to operate charter flights to Jamaica from Spain and Portugal.
Moreover, in 2017, Bahia Principe unveiled its second 18-hole professional golf course at Playa Romana Nueva in the DR, its fourth golf course overall.
Lastly, the group continues to make strides in sustainability, integrating six of the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals into its corporate social responsibility strategy. During the past year, it invested US$2.8 million into improving workplaces and making them safer and healthier for its employees.
