Spotlight ON: Carolyne Doyon, President & CEO, North America at Club Med

The Shell Can Change: How Club Med Is Growing Without Losing Its Spirit

A Spotlight Interview with Carolyne Doyon, President & CEO, North America at Club Med | INSPIRE Luxury Hospitality Conference Speaker Series.

Club Med is widely recognized as the brand that pioneered the all-inclusive vacation. Seventy-six years on, it is mapping out its next chapter of growth. For Carolyne Doyon, that plan only works if the brand holds on to what made it iconic in the first place.

Doyon, President and CEO, North America at Club Med, joins a fireside chat at the International Luxury Hotel Association’s INSPIRE Luxury Hospitality Conference this December in Orlando. In this preview conversation, she talks about balancing evolution with identity, the growth plan taking the brand back to the United States, and why the markers of luxury look so different today.

Evolve the product, protect the spirit

For Doyon, change is part of the job. Club Med has always grown alongside its guests, in how its resorts are built and in how its culinary offer adapts to the way people dine now. The brand keeps an eye on what’s coming next and works to stay ahead of it.

What doesn’t change is the essence. Being an iconic brand is a big responsibility, Doyon says, and protecting that essence sits at the center of it. Inside the company, it has a name: the Club Med Spirit. It comes from an international staff drawn from all over the world and from the French roots that shape the brand’s DNA. Both are constants. In Doyon’s view, they are what set Club Med apart in the all-inclusive market.

“The shell can change,” she says, “but the essence and what we want to offer to our guests is not changing.”

Forever Young, and the road back to the U.S.

Club Med’s growth runs through an enterprise project called Forever Young. The brand operates 69 resorts worldwide today and is targeting 85 by 2030 and 100 by 2035.

In North America, the top priority is a return to the United States, which Doyon calls the number one market in the world for all-inclusive potential. Club Med St. Croix, opening in late 2027, is the first step. By her own account, it’s only the beginning. “St. Croix is just the tip of our development plan in the U.S.,” she says.

What sets this expansion apart is the mountains. All-inclusive is still mostly associated with the beach, but Club Med also runs all-inclusive mountain resorts, in both ski season and summer. The brand is exploring ski resort projects in the U.S. and building its second Quebec resort, in Mont-Tremblant, following the opening of Québec Charlevoix a few years ago. It is also looking at more Caribbean destinations, through takeovers or greenfield builds.

The goal is a North American mountain pillar to sit alongside the ones Club Med already has in the Alps and in Hokkaido.

The new markers of luxury

Not long ago, luxury meant abundance, noble materials and things guests could touch. Doyon says that definition has evolved.

Today, luxury is time to do what you really want to do. It is having everything taken care of, so the only decision left is whether to do something or not. Above all, it is the experience.

Comfort still matters. Great rooms, great accommodation and a strong culinary offer are expected, but they are now the baseline. What sets a brand apart is everything built around them.

“The luxury markers are intangible today,” she says, “which is very different from what it was a couple of years ago.”

Hear more at INSPIRE

Carolyne Doyon continues this conversation in a fireside chat at the INSPIRE Luxury Hospitality Conference, Dec. 15–16 at the JW Marriott Orlando Bonnet Creek Resort & Spa.