Success in the Jamaican market continues to spur the growth of Gustazos Travel, which was opened by Gustazos on the island in 2021. The online travel company offering customised travel packages including group bookings and day passes to international and local hotels, theme parks, adventures and attractions as well as cruise reservations, is an offshoot of Gustazos, an e-commerce websites that creates marketing campaigns for its clients promoting travel, adventure, dining, events and spas to over a million customers through e-mail and social media.

Since its inception in Jamaica two years ago, the travel company has expanded to the other countries in which Gustazos operates, namely Puerto Rico, the Canary Islands (Spain), Dominican Republic and Panama.

“We actually use Jamaica as a benchmark for the other markets in terms of the things that have been implemented and how we do things,” revealed Nersibelis Rodriguez, the Montego Bay-based commercial director for Gustazos Travel. “[The result in Jamaica] was bigger than expected. There was not much of an expectation but I think it has surprised a lot how it has taken off.”

The high level of exposure and requests for deals from the Gustazos e-commerce platform in Jamaica was the catalyst for creating Gustazos Travel which met demand for deals that customers missed out on through the e-commerce platform.

“After a deal was up through Gustazos, we found that the exposure was so great that sometimes clients wouldn’t get the chance to purchase,” Rodriguez explained. “So once the booking window was passed, we would have requests from customers saying ‘oh, I want to buy this that you had last week or last month, do you have any more deals for this hotel or what other hotels in this area do you have’. We didn’t have a system in place or a team in place to deal with that. So, in order to service all of those requests and since we already have the relationships with the hoteliers, why not then open a side business to satisfy a demand that is already coming to us?”

Consequently, the new company opened as a travel agency promoting hotels throughout the year with an inventory of hotels and offers for the latest local rates at better prices and lower minimum stay requirements available on its website.

It initially focused on local tourism in Jamaica but requests for overseas deals prompted expansion to other destinations.

With access to international platforms, customers book at local rates directly through the Gustazos Travel website, https://gustazostravel.com, making it a more advantageous, convenient and direct booking option compared to traditional travel agencies.

Additionally, users can take advantage of an automatic reward system earning G credits with every purchase. These G credits, which never expire, can be utilised on both the Gustazos and Gustazos travel platforms. Users can use their earned G credits for various services available on both platforms while having access to purchase history, earned G credits, and usage details for easy reference and tracking.

The Jamaican market surpassed expectations due to a unique combination of products over other destinations.

“Here you have a wide variety everywhere in Jamaica,” said Rodriguez. “You can find an all-inclusive hotel [everywhere] except for maybe Kingston. Even in Kingston, you can have a full plan with all of your meals if you wanted to.”

“In Jamaica we also see a lot of locals buying attractions, for example, and adventures,” the travel executive added.

She also underscored the fact that pricing in Jamaica is more expensive than other destinations such as Panama, for example, which means a higher net revenue for the company here.

The higher demand from Jamaican customers for the high-quality products that are available and the fact that the company opened on the island before anywhere else means that the country continues to serve as a benchmark for the other Gustazos Travel operations.

Jamaicans are also exploring overseas markets where cheaper rates are available as new flight connections to destinations like the Dominican Republic and Panama have increased options to explore different experiences.

“[Jamaicans] have a wider experience now with resorts because during COVID they were probably able to visit hotels of all calibres at a very accessible rate,” Rodriguez explained. “So now they are more aware and more educated on what’s the difference between the different products. So now we’re getting a lot of demand for international travel. Why? Because ‘maybe I went already to the Hyatt, maybe I already did Secrets, maybe I already did the Royal too many times’ and they’re seeing that it’s affordable to go elsewhere.”

With the Jamaican market playing a significant role in the company’s development, Gustazos Travel plans to expand its product range in all its country operations and make them more accessible.

“We’re looking to include in our website international theme parks like Disney and Universal SeaWorld in Florida,” Rodriguez disclosed. “So you can buy your tickets directly from our platform. We’re looking to include package travel internationally where you can visit different cities, let’s say in Europe in one trip and you just pay one fee. We’re looking to be able to offer villas and car rentals. Those are the next categories that we want to flesh out.”

The executive also revealed that Gustazos Travel conducts an interactive Instagram Live session every Tuesday where Jamaican customers can engage with the company learning about the latest deals, newsletters, and market updates while asking questions, providing feedback and posting pictures and comments.