Luxury Travel Guide 2017

18 CORPORATE VISION / Luxury Travel Guide , The Crown Jewel of the Azores Hotel do Canal is one of seven 4-star Hotels of the Bensaude Hotels Collection. It is located on the ocean front of Horta city right next to one of the most famous bars in the world, Peter Cafe’s Sport, and with only a 200metres from the best sand beach in Faial, Porto Pim. With 103 rooms, restaurant, bar, banquet and conference room, meeting room, laundry, rent-a-car, fitness centre with sauna, Turkish bath, Jacuzzi, winter garden, hairdresser, massage therapist and private parking, Hotel do Canal offers the highest standard in quality and comfort. Who are your clients? Boutique hotels generally target customers who are in their early 20s to mid- 50s, with mid-to upper-income averages. Our guests come from all over the world looking for sea activities such as whale watching swimming with dolphins, diving with mantas, diving with sharks, scuba diving, canyoning, trekking, bike and jeep tours and walking tours among others. In the past few years, tourists are very attracted by Faial Natural Park, which was awarded by the European Commission as the destination designated to represent Portugal in the EDEN program (European Destinations of Excellence). This was an important accolade awarded by the European Union to the best place in Europe for sustainable tourism activities. This project started in 2007 but 2011 was the first year that Portugal was associated. What makes you unique? Hotel do Canal’s atmosphere is full of history. As we enter the Hotel, we have a highlight of the Clippers and the routes of the Pan American Airlines. With its Clippers, Pan American dominated the airspace of the North Atlantic and established during the 1930’s seaplane services to South America, Asia and Europe. It was one of the most prestigious companies in the world bringing some revolutionary innovations to the world aviation market. Horta’s excellent bay was a mandatory scale for its seaplanes. But that’s not quite all. The Bensaude initiatives are related to the cod fishing history. The Bensaude family, which has always been in the maritime business, founded various cargo and passenger shipping companies. In 1891, they established an important fishing partnership operating nine cod- fishing ships, making them at the time the largest ship owner in the business. These stories are felt and seen throughout the Hotel and can even be tasted in our Restaurant Clipper with reinvented flavours which mirror the past with eyes on the future. As such, we combine history with one-of-a- kind experiences and make our guests feel the desire to return by making each one feel unique and treated exclusively. What’s your biggest challenge facing you at present? Thinking ahead is a daily challenge and it’s not an easy one! This is definitely a team effort. Gastronomy can be seen as a unique experience and through it we can tell a story to our guests. Therefore, the cuisine has a great value for tourism. That’s why we can’t just follow the trends because it’s not enough. We want our gastronomy to express an important part of our guests’ stay. We are working hard to create identifying local dishes which complete and represent the symbolism of Faial Island. What’s the aim for your business? We aim to be the 4-star hotel of reference in the “Triangle Islands” (Faial, Pico and S. Jorge) in terms of comfort, hospitality and excellence, the first and the best choice for leisure and business tourism. We are very respectful of our history and heritage and preservation is an essential part of our values. We want to preserve it all because we believe that an historical approach sets hotels apart. What’s your company’s biggest challenge? Right now we have a well- defined project consolidation and growth for the Bensaude Hotels. We have five-year goals for growth, with very specific actions to increasingly position and differentiate ourselves in the market. Our very concrete vision is to keep us as a leading Hotel Group of excellence in the Azores and in the national market. What business/business person do you most admire and why? Well, I have to be honest with myself! The business person that I most admire is definitely Mr. Luís Bensaude, the first family member of the Bensaude Group that I met when I first started working in our Hotels in 1991. He was my mentor and still is. I never forget some important values that he taught me to follow. He once said to me “Arlene, always follow your instincts. Whatever ethical plane you hold yourself to, be humble and loyal to your staff. Your team will always be the reflection of you and will follow suit.” Well, I can’t say that I regret following his advice because they led me to where I am now. There are many other family members that were very important to me too, of course! The group is owned by the seventh generation of the family, which started its commercial activity in the Azores in 1820 as an importer and distributor of textiles from the United Kingdom and as an exporter of cereals and oranges, giving rise to a group of companies that maintained since then its fully familiar nature. Today, it’s the largest private economic Azorean Group spread over 26 companies operating in several business areas such as hospitality, distribution, wholesaling, fuel, energy, environment, transportation and logistics. I’m proud to be an employee of this visionary company because they teach me to see further ahead.