I think it is fair to say that we have not had a bad time so far at the La Reserva Club, Sotogrande (Spain). The La Reserva Club is the leisure component of La Reserva de Sotogrande gated residential community.
The Andalusian golf resort now wants to raise the bar by adding a state-of-the-art leisure development called ‘The Beach’. It is set to open this summer.
The whole leisure development is like a 3-in-1 offer:
- Sandy pool: this will be Europe’s first full sandy pool with a beautifully designed area and sunbeds, to give an authentic seaside feel. The 3,000 square meter sandy pool includes 500 square meters of water and beach dedicate to children.
- Sports lagoon: the 17,000 square meter sports lagoon offers activities such as optimist sailing, windsurfing, kayaking and pedalos in close proximity to the beach club and amid stunning views of the sea, hills and the La Reserva golf course. It will have its own boathouse and summer café in close proximity also serving the children’s area.
- Beach Club: a full-service beachfront restaurant.
It will be interesting to see how they will keep the sand and the pool clean on a daily basis. It is really good that they could afford to build a dedicated area to children. I remember four years ago when I wrote about DoubleTree by Hilton Resort & THB Reserva del Higuerón (they say it is suited for guests 16 and older), I was surprised to learn about their “adults-only” package.
Golf resorts and hotel equally cannot avoid not to deal with the multi-generational holiday trend. This trend will not vanish in 2018 for sure. The 2018 Virtuoso Luxe Report ranked the multi-generational travel as the #1 Top Travel Trend (since 2010).
The very same report ranked as #2 travel trend: active and adventure trips. I assume the “Sports lagoon” concept was built on this trend.
Some leading golf resorts are already providing kids’ club program, for instance:
- Lumine Mediterránea Beach & Golf Club (Spain);
- Pine Cliffs Resort (Algarve, Portugal);
- Terre Blanche Spa Golf Resort (France) etc.
68% of the Generation X travelers (born between 1961-1981) and Millennial travelers (1982-2002; 65%) are more interested in family-oriented holidays (source: Expedia’s Multi-Generational Travel Trends survey). Another interesting finding of this survey was that people are not necessarily price-focused.
They ranked these activities as the TOP 3 holiday activities:
- Activities I will be doing on my trip;
- A once in a lifetime experience;
- The cultural experience.
Marc Topiol, CEO of Sotogrande SA told to the Financial Times in October 2017 that “Sotogrande is at a crossroads of generations from the baby boomers to the Millennials.”
It would be really useful to highlight on the La Reserva Club, Sotogrande website those programs that are designed/offered especially for multigenerational/family holidaymakers.