Costa do Sauípe: all in one place

By: Sebastián Fernández

For eight years the eastern coast of Brazil, in the state of Bahia, has become a pole of tourism development that today has about 170 thousand annual visitors. Costa do Sauípe is the name of this complex that is located in the municipality of Mata de São João and can be accessed after an hour's drive from Salvador, or after a two-hour flight from São Paulo or Rio de Janeiro.
In the place is a typical Bahian city with 1,584 apartments distributed in five luxurious hotels and six inns of international stature that recreate different scenarios of the place. Additionally, there is an ecopark, a nautical and equestrian recreation center, a golf course, 27 shops, 15 restaurants, 18 swimming pools, 15 tennis courts, Spa, sports plaques, and convention center with capacity for up to 5,000 people.

Until recently, the management of the hotels was in charge of different operators, the entertainment offer was segmented and access to any of the attractions of the place had to be paid independently.

The situation changed after the shareholders began a process of modernization and integration of services whose main objective is to raise occupancy, from 57 to 65% within a maximum period of five years and that modified the operation of several systems since the first of June.

Integration, first step
As a first step, the operator Sauípe Hotéis & Resorts (SHR) was created, a brand belonging to Sauípe S.A that manages, since last March, the inns that will be subjected to an improvement process to include new services.

Breakfast service was also included as part of the package for all resort guests.

In dialogue with GERENCIA DE HOTELES & RESTAURANTES, Alexandre Zubaran, director of Sauípe S.A. gave more details regarding the decision to restructure the complex. "Right now we have a very large infrastructure and it was necessary to make an adjustment in our business model. As Sauípe was operated by different hotel chains, there was very little synergy between all that available infrastructure," he said.

Zubarán stressed that the purpose is to offer the traveler everything in one place: "At the moment we are putting all that infrastructure at the service of the client, so you can already stay in one of the hotels in Costa do Sauípe and you can have dinner in any of the restaurants we have in the other hotels and in the Coexistence Center we have."

No money lost
But the biggest innovation within the renewed Costa do Sauípe is, without a doubt, the creation of a card that will act as an electronic currency.
"You don't use more money in Costa do Sauípe, you use a card with a chip: with the same one you use to open the apartment you will be able to consume, within Costa do Sauípe, without paying surcharges," Zubaran explained.

The system is then a card that in addition to serving as access control for the rooms, will function as a debit card, which will allow the customer to buy or pay for products or services anywhere. The money will be debited from the quota authorized by the client at the time of entry.

"It is a passport called 'Passaporte de Lazer Total' (Total Pleasure Passport), in which the customer pays only once a year and when he returns to Costa do Sauípe he does not need to do it again. Families can use all the infrastructure: play golf, go to the nautical center, run by bicycle or on horseback as many times as they want. This has a value of 50 reais (between US$20 and US$25) per person for the entire period of accommodation. Children under the age of 11 don't pay," Zubaran said.

Prepaid cards can be recharged at any time, while the postpaid bill will be cancelled at check-out.

Service and social work
The tourist complex of Costa do Sauípe employs about 3,000 workers, of which 60% come from the surrounding areas. The remaining 40% corresponds to people from other areas such as Salvador.

"We are doing a broad qualification program because the Costa do Sauípe is in a place where there are communities that are not qualified to serve a tourism venture of this nature," says the director, who clarifies that training and training plans have been designed, as well as linking the people of the area to the productive chain of tourism.

"We also have the largest Brazilian socio-environmental tourism program called Berimbau and it is a project focused on the development of productive economic cycles to improve the quality of life of the people around them, mainly those who cannot be included in this tourism development, because they are elderly, they are not literate, or because they work in agriculture and fishing."

Within Berimbau, special projects are developed such as environmental sustainability through recycling, which allows processing almost all of the 12 tons of daily garbage generated in the area. "All the dry garbage goes into the recycling process and the organic waste is transformed into fertilizers," Zubaran said.

Luxury and comfort
The tourist offer of Costa do Sauípe is being adequate to serve different types of public, with defined tastes and variable purchasing power. "We have from resorts of 400 apartments, to resorts under 198, we have inns of 20 apartments or 40. Within that diversity there are lodging options for different profiles: families, honeymoons, etc.

The hotels and inns have the necessary services to guarantee a good rest experience: Wi-Fi internet service, laundry, more than 40 shops among which there are gastronomy, fashion, entertainment, bars. There is also a coexistence center called Vila da Praia, where most of the cultural and commercial offer is concentrated.

The complex is also equipped with modern electronic monitoring equipment and an additional group of people in charge of security, as well as an online reservation system and via contact center.

Zubaran says that for corporate clients there is "one of the largest convention centers in Brazil in the hotel, where we hold the main events in the country." Similarly, all hotels and inns are equipped with meeting rooms.

Its six inns with 169 apartments offer special amenities for both smokers and non-smokers. All rooms are equipped with air conditioning, cable TV, telephone lines, electronic safe and laundry service.

The inns are themed and evoke the tradition and culture of the state of Bahia and Brazil in general. The Agreste inn, for example, is inspired by the festivals of the region and the history of the "cangaço" that occurred in the nineteenth century in northeastern Brazil. The inn Aldeia is a reproduction of a fishing village built in the middle of palm trees 50 meters from the beach; the Posada Carnaval evokes the colors of the Baiano carnival; the Posada Gabriela has an architecture inspired by the cocoa farms and mansions of Ilhéus (town in the area); the Posada Pelourinho evokes this site, historical heritage of humanity; while the Posada da Torre recalls the history of the region since the arrival of the conquerors in 1549.

For its part, the Costa do Sauípe Golf & SPA hotel stands out for the sophistication in each of its 256 apartments and 17 suites. It has an air-conditioned lobby and two restaurants with Asian and Baiana cuisine.

The Costa do Sauípe All-Inclusive Resort is a typical all-inclusive resort with 327 apartments and 11 suites, as well as a convention center for 320 people.

For the family, there is the Costa do Sauípe Suítes with cocoa-inspired décor.  This tree, its aroma and its fruits are present in the 198 colonial-style suites where other materials such as wood, granite and natural fibers are also mixed.

Finally, the Costa do Sauípe Grande Hotel (formerly called Costa do Sauípe Conventions), has a thematic inspiration based on the discovery of Brazil. It has 404 apartments and is next to one of the largest convention and event structures in South America, the Centro de Convenções da Costa do Sauípe.