Resorts group Club Mediterranee unveiled on Friday, February 23, its latest bid to revamp its range, with a holiday village in Tunisia aimed at the rave-party generation. Radio advertising to support the new village opens on Monday, featuring the strap line, "If you sleep, you're dead."
The first "Oyyo" holiday village, opening in Bekalta, 30 kilometers (20 miles) south of Monastir, will be pitched at the 18-30 age group, with an invitation to party all day long.
The village centerpiece will be an open-air 1,500-square meter disco, blasting out non-stop music from 10.00 to 05.00, with two DJs acting as master of ceremonies. And in contrast to the traditional Club Med formula based around organized entertainments led by group leaders, there will be no timetable of events.
However, in pitching the appeal to the youth market, the marketers have identified team sports as a big attraction and the village will offer games such as beach volley-ball, basket ball and beach football. Meal times will be flexible with a breakfast on offer until 14.30.
The group plans to open around 10 such new villages over the next five years. The first village has been financed by local institutional investors who are leasing the property to Club Med.
Club Med, under chairman Philippe Bourguignon, formerly head of Euro Disney Paris, has been turned round from the lengthy decline it suffered for much of the 1990s, when the original format of orchestrated fun, and an image of native huts and payment by beads, fell into disfavor. — (AFP, Paris)
© Agence France Presse 2001
© 2001 Mena Report (www.menareport.com)
