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'Club Med' (short for ''Club Méditerranée'') is a French corporation of vacation resorts found in many parts of the world, usually in highly exotic locations. It is seen by many as having started the all-inclusive resort concept, which is now a popular vacationing style for people of all ages.

Contents

History

Foundation

Expansion

Diversification

Relaunch

The Club Med experience

Club Med in film

Criticism

References

External links

History

Foundation

The Club was started in 1950 by former Belgian water polo champion, Gérard Blitz. The first village opened on the Spanish island of Mallorca. The original villages were, by concept, very simple with members staying in unlit straw huts on a beachfront, sharing communal washing facilities. Such villages have been replaced with modern blocks or huts with ensuite facilities.
The club joining fee was set at 300 French francs and the cost of a two-week vacation at 15,900 francs.

Expansion

The number of villages increased greatly under the leadership of Gilbert Trigano (Blitz's business partner), from 1963 to 1993.
Winter villages, providing skiing and other winter sports tuition, were introduced, starting in 1956 with the village at Leysin, Switzerland. In 1955 the first club outside the Mediterranean was opened, in Tahiti. The North American market was later entered with an "American Zone" of villages in the Caribbean and Florida where English rather than French was the main language of communication.
The target clientele has also evolved. Originally mainly attracting singles and young couples, the Club later become primarily a destination for families, with the first Mini Club opening in 1967.

The Club has also ceased to be a club in the legal sense, changing from a not-for-profit association to a for-profit public limited company (French SA) in 1995. The concept of membership has been retained with each customer charged a joining and annual membership fee.

Diversification

In the 1990s, the Club's fortunes declined as competitors copied its concepts and holidaymakers demanded more sophisticated offerings. Serge Trigano took over from his father but was replaced in 1997 by Philippe Bourguignon, former CEO of EuroDisney.
Bourguignon aimed to change the Club "from a holiday village company to a services company". The club took over a chain of French gyms, launched bar/restaurant complexes ''Club Med World'' in Paris and Montreal and commenced a budget resort concept aimed at young adults, ''Oyyo'' with its first resort at Monastir in Tunisia. Thirteen new villages were planned for the new century.

Relaunch

The change in strategy was not successful and the Club fell deeply into loss in the downturn following the September 11, 2001, attacks in the USA. In 2002 a new CEO, Henri Giscard d'Estaing, was appointed. A new strategy was announced, returning to a focus on the holiday villages and for upmarket vacationers. ''Oyyo'', ''Club Med World'' Montreal and many villages, particularly those in North America or with more basic facilities, were closed. The Club returned to profit in 2005.
In 2004, the hotel group Accor became the largest shareholder, but it sold most of its stake in 2006, announcing that it wished to refocus on its core businesses. [1]

The Club Med experience

Each resort provides an extensive list of services and activities in one single package. This includes lodging, food, use of facilities, sports activities, games, and shows. However, certain items such as alcoholic beverages require the use of beads or tickets as a form of payment. Many villages are now all-inclusive for alcohol and snacks.
Club Med staff are called "GOs", or ''Gentils Organisateurs '' (Gracious Organisers). Clients are "GMs", or ''Gentils Membres'' (Gracious Members). The resort is known as a ''village''. The resort manager is called the ''chef de village'' (village chief).
The special feature of Club Med is that the GOs and GMs play, dine, drink, and dance together every day and night. Outdoor buffet dining (usually on tables of eight, mixing GMs and GOs), daytime sport tuition and evening show with extensive audience participation are part of the holiday experience.
A particular institution is the communal dance or ''crazy signs'' led by the GOs at varying intervals during the day and evening (the frequency varies by village). The dance steps for each song are standard across the organisation with some new ones introduced each year. The evening shows, often requiring detailed choreography, are also standardised and include both new and established routines.
GOs are moved between villages and many work both winter and summer seasons. All GOs, regardless of their specialism (a sport or administrative function), are expected to regularly participate in both the show and "crazy signs". Their work is supplemented by locally-recruited support staff such as cleaners and cooks, known as "GEs" or ''Gentils Employés'' (Gracious Employees).
The villages are divided into 6 concepts or "pleasures" such as: "to discover"; " to experience the exceptional"; or "to live life to the full". Most villages today are designed for families, with villages providing daytime supervised facilities for different age ranges: the "Baby", "Petit", "Mini", "Junior's" clubs and 12 Passworld facilities worldwide which offer a special hang out space for 11-17 year olds. A minority of villages remain either adults only or open to children but without dedicated children's activities.
The Club's 2006 advertising slogan, which reflects its revised strategy, is: "Discover the new Club Med, refined, exceptional, a la carte".
As of January 2007, the Club operates 90 villages, in Europe, Africa, USA, The Caribbean, South America, Southern Asia, French Polynesia, and Australia.

Club Med in film

The Club Med style of vacation was satirised in the 1978 film, ''Les Bronzés'' (released in English as ''French Fried Vacation'') directed by Patrice Leconte. Sequels ''Les Bronzés font du ski'' and ''Les Bronzés - Amis pour la Vie'' were released in 1979 and 2006 respectively.
Jim Carrey and Alan Thicke star in 1983's Copper Mountain: A Club Med Experience, set at the now-closed Club Med village in the U.S. ski resort at Copper Mountain, Colorado.
A TV Movie was made by the ABC network in 1986 titled "Club Med". It starred Jack Scalia, Linda Hamilton, and Patrick Macnee. It also featured appearances by Bill Maher, Sinbad, and Gloria Estefan and Miami Sound Machine.
There is also a song by Camper Van Beethoven called "Club Med Sucks" in which the band claims the institution exploits the "poor and the weak."
There is also a horror movie titled "Club Dread," a play on the Club Med name.
In the Pink Panther Series, The Pink Panther makes a reference to Club Med in the Episode: Momma's Boy.
In the Simpsons episode "Bart Gets Hit by a Car," one of Dr. Nick Riviera's diplomas reads "Club Med School." In the episode, "Little Big Mom," Bart says that he and Homer, who have been sent to a leper colony in Hawaii due to a since-discovered trick played on them by Lisa, plan to "put our fake sores back on, then jump into Club Med and scare the normals."

Criticism

Club med was famously criticised by graffiti during the May 1968 student uprising in Paris as "a cheap holiday in other people's misery."^[1]
Some of Club Med's resorts are old and of very poor quality. A case in point is the Club Med in Cargese (France, Corsica) - over 30 years old. The resort is poorly maintained and the place is crowded (over 1,000 "guests") with food of poor quality, over used infrastructures and low quality management. Sanitary conditions are questionable with birds in the restaurant freely flying, eating (and more...) over food. More details and pitures can be found at: (English)[2] or (French)[3].

References

1. Lipstick Traces, , Greil, Marcus, Picador, ,

External links

★ Corporate website

★ U.S. Corporate website

★ Canadian Corporate website
The Club Med Experience

★ Club Med Community site for GOs and XGOs