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In this video you’ll hear from Iberostar’s business development director for the UK and Ireland, Aishling McLoughlin. 

A spotlight on Andalucia

In the video above you’ll hear about all of Iberostar’s latest openings. Don’t forget, while Iberostar is well established in Andalucia, the town of Chiclana de la Frontera is still considered to be a hidden gem to the UK market. 

As McLoughlin explains: "We’re really pleased that from this summer there are more flights to Jerez, so lots more customers will get to experience this beautiful area of Spain now. Our two hotels there, Iberostar Selection Andalucia Playa and Iberostar Waves Royal Andaluz, are right on La Barossa beach, so it’s great for that beach holiday, but I would also recommend people also get out to some of the gorgeous white Andalucian villages in the mountains, and take a trip to the historic city of Cadiz."

Video transcript 

With Iberostar’s business development director for the UK and Ireland, Aishling McLoughlin, and TTG Media’s Charlotte Cullinan. 

Charlotte: Hello and welcome to our In The Spotlight video with Iberostar Hotels & Resorts! So Aishling, how are things going? 

Aishling: Hi Charlotte, things are going fantastic, we’ve had a great few weeks to kick off the start of the year, it’s already been very busy with lots of activities with our partners, lots more plans in the pipeline, and of course the sales as well – they’ve been absolutely amazing, so I just want to start off by saying a huge thank you to all the travel agents out there sending over their lovely bookings. 

Charlotte: Wonderful and you’ve got lots of exciting activity planned for agents, tell us a bit more about that.

Aishling: Yeah we do, so you might have seen that last year we launched our Star Awards for the first year ever, where we kind of got to recognise and show our appreciation to some of our top partners throughout the year, so that’s that was really nice and it was a huge success so we’ll be relaunching them very soon for 2025. And actually we’re launching a new concept it’s the Iberostar Premiere events, which are taking place very soon and it will just be a really nice way for our agent partners to come along have a nice evening with us and actually hear all about the news of Iberostar on the big screen, so I can’t wait for those.

Charlotte: Sounds very exciting, and tell us a bit more about the new hotels that you’ve got coming up. 

Aishling: So one of our new openings is actually taking place on the island of Majorca, the home of Iberostar, it’s the Iberostar Selection Es Trenc, so it’s one of our Selection hotels opening in April, so that’s real premium product, beautiful hotel, the decor, the design, we’re going to have a fabulous rooftop terrace and you’re just surrounded by the sea, but one of the real USPs I think of this hotel is the the location, it’s in the Colonia Sant Jordi area of Majroca, along the south coast, and it’s a real hidden gem very close to Es Trenc beach, one of the most beautiful beaches I’ve ever seen, so we’ve got a really wonderful location there, you’re surrounded by nature and it will be great for clients to be able to get out and about and explore the island of Majorca.

Charlotte: And tell us about the Star Prestige room type which is available to book at the hotel. 

Aishling: Yes so it’s fantastic, so Star Prestige is a higher grade room type that clients can book at the Iberostar Selection Es Trenc, and also some other hotels that we have around Europe, and the clients of Star Prestige will actually have Superior rooms, exclusive services and access to areas just for the Star Prestige clients. 

Charlotte: And tell us about the other new hotels that you’ve got opening this year.

Aishling: Yes so we have another new property opening shortly in Tunisia it’s the Iberostar Selection Mirage Hammamet, a beautiful property on the beach front there in the heart of Hammamet Resort, so a really great spot. And it’s also a great option for families there, because we have some Bungalow room types with lots of space for the families and of course our Star Camp kids club for for the mini VIPs – if we keep them happy the parents are happy.

Charlotte: Definitely, perfect, and you’ve got lots of other hotels in Tunisia as well haven’t you?

Aishling: We do actually we have eight hotels in in total it’s been a very popular destination, we’ve actually got two properties on the island of Djerba as well as on the mainland of Tunisia. And Tunisia offers a really great price to quality ratio as well so I’d highly recommend it to everyone.

Charlotte: Oh I’m sold! And where else do you recommend Ash?

Aishling: Well now that’s a question, there’s really so many so many destinations I can recommend, but one of them actually is where we had our new opening just before Christmas, and it’s on the beautiful Caribbean island of Aruba. We opened our JOIA Aruba by Iberostar. JOIA is our premium luxury collection of hotels, so the best of the best. JOIA actually means ’jewel’ in Spanish, so they really are the jewels of the crown and JOIA Aruba is directly on Eagle Beach, that’s really where you want to be on the island of Aruba.

Charlotte: Oh wow you really do have so many new hotels and destinations, what else is keeping you busy?

Aishling: Well we’re constantly reinvesting and upgrading our properties so this winter we’re renovating the Iberostar Creta Panorama & Mare, it’s just one of our hotels that we have in Rethymnon in Crete, so this hotel is going to have again lots of new facilities, a new restaurant for example for the clients, and a new aqua fun park with slides for people of all ages, I’m sure some adults will be enjoying that, the aqua park as well, and the some of the room renovations as well, so it’s going to be a fantastic property for clients and that will be ready for this summer.

Charlotte: Wow gosh there’s so many exciting things going on, it sounds like it’s going to be a busy but exciting year for you. And of course we can’t talk about Iberostar without talking about sustainability, it’s also going to be a busy year on that front isn’t it? 

Aishling: Absolutely, as you know Charlotte it’s always top priority, it’s at the heart of everything we do within Iberostar, so that will continue, and 2025 will be a real pivotal year for our Wave of Change movement, with lots of action lines and projects going. We’re very involved in the community tourism aspect as well, which is just fantastic, and of course when you’re talking about sustainability it’s really important to report on all these all these action lines and monitor all the results, so you’ll be able to view them in our end of year report. We produce that every year, and of course we’re working on the TTG Sustainable Travel Heroes project with you guys, which we’re really excited about, we’re your hotel partner for another year, so we can’t wait to work with some new Agent Ambassadors, and tell them all about our sustainability movement.

Charlotte: Wonderful thank you, and thank you for watching our In The Spotlight with Iberostar!