In Las Vegas, gambling supports the hotels. In Punta Del Este, Uruguay, the situation is not very different, especially at the Enjoy Punta Del Este hotel. Formerly known as Conrad, the 26-year-old establishment has the largest casino in Latin America and mostly hosts Brazilian customers.
Comparison with Las Vegas is still quite far. Gambling in the city located in Nevada, United States, moved US$ 14.8 billion in revenue in 2022, while Enjoy delivered approximately US$ 40 million in prizes to its customers in the same period. However, 2022 was one of the best years for the hotel, in the view of the company's Director of Institutional Relations and Sales, Javier Azcurra.
Thinking about improving the experience of existing customers and attracting the attention of new ones, Enjoy is investing in the restructuring of the complex that has a casino with 518 machines and 72 gaming tables, in addition to 292 rooms, seven restaurants, a convention center with 18 rooms, spa and nightclub. In 2022 alone, the group spent US$ 3 million on renovations.
“Since the change from Conrad to Enjoy, which occurred nine years ago, we are constantly modernizing, seeking to raise the bar for casino customers, who are our most frequent audience,” says Azcurra. “We have customers who come four times a year and have a loyalty card and exclusive offers with us; so it’s only fair that the focus is on them.”
Brazilians are included in this data. Of the 150,000 guests who stayed at Enjoy last year, around 50,000 came from Brazil, characterizing the complex's most assiduous public. This number helps to keep Enjoy at 80% occupancy throughout the year, even though the city is much less busy during the winter.
But the company wants to reach 100% occupancy at all times of the year and counts on Brazilians to achieve this level. Thus, in partnership with Azul (AZUL4), two flights a week from São Paulo and Porto Alegre were launched, which land directly at the international airport of Punta Del Este, avoiding the approximately 2-hour journey from the capital, Montevideo. Flights take off on Thursdays and Sundays and cost, on average, R$ 1,600 (US$ 330) per person.
In addition, Enjoy launched in early 2023 a new category of tours focused on Brazilians, Punta Wine Trips. The package costs US$ 1,400 per person and includes airfare, accommodation, meals and visits to wineries and tourist attractions in the city for a period of three days, from Thursday to Sunday.
“The idea of launching Punta Wine Trips was born out of the desire of Brazilians to come here and experience wine tourism in the region, with the growth of incredible wineries that we have here. So, we realized that there was a perfect match between supply and demand,” says Azcurra. From April to June, 250 Brazilians bought the package, which takes place twice a month.
Source: Forbes / GMB
