Living the Aston experience is much more than a set phrase. It is about hotels that, for visitors, are unforgettable because of the singularities that characterize them. Sergio Alvarez, director of Sales and Marketing for the Americas at the Archipelago Group, in charge of the Aston hotels, talked to Caribbean News Digital about this and other topics at the 41st International Tourism Fair of Cuba, FITCuba 2023.

Alvarez commented that the Archipelago Group is a company with more than 300 hotels in operation in Southwest Asia. "Our corporate and the origin of our company is in Indonesia. The corporate is in Jakarta, and we currently operate hotels in Indonesia, including Bali, Singapore, Thailand, Malaysia, Philippines and recently in Vietnam.

"We also have two hotels already operating in Saudi Arabia, but Archipelago's main focus and objective is growth in Latin America, where today we are operating four hotels in Cuba: we have the Grand Aston La Habana, an impressive 600-room hotel with two towers, spectacular views right in front of the Malecon and in this neighbourhood that is so interesting and has so much past and so much history that is El Vedado. That is where we are located. We also have seven restaurants inside the hotel, a fabulous swimming pool overlooking the sea.

"On November 1, we also opened a hotel in Cayo Coco, specifically in Cayo Paredón, the Grand Aston Cayo Paredón, with 600 rooms, an all-inclusive hotel, very close to the airport, and that same day we also opened the Aston Costa Verde, in Holguín, in eastern Cuba," he explained.

Álvarez announced that "two hotels are coming soon, on September 1st we will open the first one, the Grand Aston Varadero. It will be a spectacular hotel, undoubtedly the newest product in Varadero, which is the largest beach destination in Cuba. And finally we are in the process of renovating the Aston Panorama hotel in Havana."

-How does Aston achieve the excellence that characterizes them worldwide?

-This comes a little bit from the school we received from so many years of experience in the Asian hotel industry. The protocols they use, their service, their warmth, are the standards they have passed on to us in the Americas.  

The executive considers that, regardless of the fact that facilities always play an important role, especially in companies that sell service, the latter has to go hand in hand with the conditions, with the amenities, and that is precisely what characterizes us and puts us at the forefront and gives us a competitive advantage based on all the services we offer.

About his presence in Cayo Santa María, he commented that it is a spectacular destination, connected to the mainland by a causeway -a road above the sea- with Caibarién, an unforgettable 47-kilometer journey. There we have the Aston Fiesta and the Grand Aston Cayo Las Brujas, with a section for adults and a section for families.