Issuu

Quarterly edition Year 10 Vol. 32, Riviera Maya

Sharing the Karisma Story

Premier Worldwide Marketing

REFLECTIONS Resilience Health and Covid-19

INDEX 2 8 11 12 14

The New Reflections PWM: Planning for The Return of Travel PWM: Sharing the Karisma Story Sustainability: Covid-19, The High Price of Messing with Nature

Human Capital: Resilience, how to adapt to change and recuperate from adversity

18 20 22 24 28

Karisma Foundation: Health and Covid-19, Hygiene as an Effective Preventive Measure Training: Webinars, The Learning and Teaching Experience F&B: Cook Like a Real Chef Collaborator Meetings Spa: What is Well-being?

General Director: Sasa Milojevic

Creative Director: Rosalinda Graf

Editor: Estela Paz / Mildred Mafud

Art Director: Antonio Violante

Editorial Board:

Editorial Design & Illustration: Nadia Pool, Erika Gutiérrez

Alberto Roldán (El Dorado Royale, a Spa Resort, by Karisma/El Dorado Casitas Royale, a Spa Resort, by Karisma/ Generations Riviera Maya, by Karisma/Xolumado Inspiration Village, by Karisma), Armando Sánchez (El Dorado

Print:

Maroma, a Spa Resort, by Karisma/Palafitos at El Dorado Maroma), Coynta Arzola (El Dorado Seaside Suites,

Pixel Press, S.A. de C.V. Carretera Cancún-Aeropuerto Km 15 lote 7, SM 301, Edificio USA Today P.B.

a Spa Resort, by Karisma/Hidden Beach, Au Naturel Resort, by Karisma), Elvis Puc (Azul Beach Resort Riviera

Cancún, Quintana Roo C.P. 77560 Tel. 01( 998) 8862232 / atnclientes@pixelpress.com.mx

Maya), Nayeri Ramos (TUI Sensatori Azul Beach Resort Riviera Cancún), El Cielo Winery & Resort, by Karisma, Tameka Elliott (TUI Sensatori Azul Beach Resort Negril), Beatriz Osorio (Allure Hotels & Resorts by Karisma

Kontacto Magazine

-Colombia), Indira Andujar (Nickelodeon™ Hotels & Resorts Punta Cana/TUI Sensatori Resort Punta Cana),

Free circulation quarterly edition property of Karisma Hotels & Resorts.

Diana Mejía (Oficinas LATAM), Sahira García (Cedar Creek International). Address: Collaborators from:

Carretera Federal-Tulum Km. 55.3, Centro Playa del Carmen, Quintana Roo, México C.P. 77710.

Cinthia Estrada y Mariana Aguilar (El Dorado Royale, a Spa Resort, by Karisma/El Dorado Casitas Royale, a Spa

Teléfono: +52 (984) 206 3470

Resort, by Karisma/Generations Riviera Maya, by Karisma/Xolumado Inspiration Village, by Karisma), Mónica Cruz (El Dorado Maroma, a Spa Resort, by Karisma/Palafitos at El Dorado Maroma), Cecilia Medina (El Dorado

Printing:

Seaside Suites, a Spa Resort, by Karisma/Hidden Beach, Au Naturel Resort, by Karisma), Gamaliel Tuz (Azul

1,000 copies. The content of the articles is the responsibility of the author and does not necessarily reflect the opinion of

Beach Resort Riviera Maya), Daniel Castellón (TUI Sensatori Azul Beach Resort Riviera Cancún), Diego Jaramillo

the Editorial Board, nor does it represent the official position of the hotels that sponsor this magazine. The advertising

(Oficinas LATAM), Lyn Santos (Sustentabilidad), Grecia López (Spa), Fernando Peralta (Oficina Cancún).

information is advertiser’s liability

THE NEW

SUSTENTABILIDAD

Karisma Hotels & Resorts

SEE YOU SOON FROM AZUL BEACH RESORT RIVIERA CANCUN Our last departing guests were shown our appreciation with a great farewell. We hope to see them back shortly!

KARISMA IS SUN-POWERED! Our Solar Park at Nickelodeon ™ Hotels & Resorts Punta Cana is already installed and working, harnessing solar energy and turning it into electrical power. At Karisma Hotels & Resorts, we always look for environment and communityfriendly options. With this investment, the hotel´s carbon footprint will be reduced by approximately 6,800 tons of CO2 per year, which is equivalent to the electrical energy consumed by 718 houses!

WE’VE GOT THE GOLD! We are very proud to share with you how we´re overcoming these times of great challenge: Azul Beach Resort Riviera Cancun was awarded the EarthCheck Gold certification, accounting for 5 uninterrupted years of dedicated sustainable management. With this remarkable accomplishment, not only does our property become the first ever Gold level hotel in the Karisma Hotels & Resorts collection, it attains a leading position within a select international group of sustainable tour operators. Our warmest congratulations to the ABR work team!

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THE NEW... WE’RE A GREAT TEAM AND... HELPING IS OUR #PASSION! Our helping efforts are reaching those who are currently going through a very difficult situation. Let’s keep it up team, we´re doing a very good job! And we have good reason to be proud as Nickelodeon ™ Hotels & Resorts Punta Cana repurposed our industrial kitchens to produce 800 meals that were distributed among the neediest families in the VeronPunta Cana Municipal District. Moreover, the hotel will continue carrying out these type of actions for the benefit of our communities. A video of the delivery was uploaded to our social networks, and these are some of the comments we received. Actually, we even made the news! Today more than ever we’re all united, and we must support each other!

WE TAKE CARE OF YOU As part of the support provided in this health emergency, food kits were delivered to our collaborators hoping that it will be of great help to them and their families. They were very grateful, and we will surely see them back again soon.

WE CONTINUE BRINGING HAPPINESS As part of the daily humanitarian aid operation in the Dominican Republic, specifically in the Bávaro, La Altagracia community, 2,349 lunch boxes were delivered, out of which 800 were contributed by Nickelodeon ™ Hotels & Resorts, by Karisma. This effort is aimed at assisting the neediest and we are doing our bit.

/ Karisma Hotels & Resorts

ALLURE SUCCEEDS IN SUPPORTIG THEIR ENTIRE PERSONNEL Since the beginning of this pandemic, our colleagues at Allure have shown solidarity with their employees by supporting their needs with food kits. These deliveries have been gradual in order to benefit them all and at this rate they will have managed to distribute this aid to all active staffs by April 29th.

THE NEW...

GOOD PRACTICES! Changes come unannounced and sometimes what´s most important is to stop and give ourselves the time to think before making decisions. And as we go through the adaptation process we need to identify opportunities and act on new ideas to turn them into best practices. Our colleagues in Colombia have created a new reading club under the guidance of Diego Jaramillo and Melitza Freites, where Allure´s executive committee members are currently analyzing and discussing Stephen Covey´s “The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People” in a healthy exchange of personal experience and ideas. Additional activities and tasks are then incorporated to this collaborative learning group which allow them to identify and evaluate perfectible behavior patterns, generate new ideas, and build competencies to apply actively by every team in the near future. Integral growth both in our personal and professional lives will be a requirement that we will all face as we make our comeback, and it will be important to be able to promote a positive and innovative attitude leading by example.

WE CARE ABOUT YOU: SIMPLY WELLNESS @HOME We have launched a brand new section in our newsletter: a version of Simply Wellness now made available to all our Karisma collaborators. Although our spas offer a wide variety of services designed for guests, thanks to the Spa team headed by Ms. Grecia Lopez, we have been sharing excellent tips from the professionals for everyone to follow at home: exercises, stretching, massages, reflexology, healthy snacks and meditation are some of the topics included in this weekly blog.

You are always welcome in this wellness community, and please enjoy this space designed specially for you! #StayAtHome

FOUR YEARS BEING SOCIALLY RESPONSIBLE! We are very proud to announce that, for the fourth year in a row, we attained the Socially Responsible Company certification. And that is not the only news, we now occupy position no. 60 out of 448 companies that took part in the process, which puts us in the top 100 companies nationwide (Mexico). This is the result of amazing teamwork. Congratulations!

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THE NEW...

KARISMA FOUNDATION HAS ITS HEART SET ON HELPING OTHERS Karisma Foundation proudly contributed to saving the life of a very young girl through a pediatric surgical instrument donation made to the Cancun General Hospital. Thanks to that contribution, and despite the current pandemic, a 40-day-old baby with patent ductus arteriosus (PDA) named Jessica received successful surgery and will be able to continue recovering at home in a few days.

In the midst of this crisis, Karisma Foundation remains a voice of hope and support to those who need it most. THE MORE WE ARE, THE MORE WE CAN HELP We´d like to share with you that in order to support the countries where our company has a presence, we´ve been working on setting up a way to make donations through a PayPal account link on the Karisma Foundation website. We´re almost there, and your support will be of great importance! Our PayPal account is now ready to receive donations through the Karisma Foundation website, to cope with the current health emergency. How does it work? 1. Enter the site and access the Covid-19 section: https:// fundacionkarisma.org/causas-covid-19/ 2. Select the cause you want to support: medications, hospital supplies or medical equipment. 3. Make a donation!

OUR HELP CONTINUES! In an effort to cope with the coronavirus healthcare emergency, Karisma Foundation has made the following medicine and medical equipment donation to the Cancun General Hospital in Mexico: · · · ·

Face masks and nasal cannulas for oxygen therapy Portable oxygen concentrators Multivitamins Medicines

It is currently very challenging to find these items due to a nationwide medical supply shortage, but Karisma Foundation made it happen! PayPal will not charge any commissions during this emergency, so the amount you donate will be transferred in full to the Foundation. Your support is highly important! Please, share.

In response to our hospital center needs, Karisma Foundation was able to deliver 10 Aerobox boxes to the Cancun General Hospital that will help protect medical personnel taking care of Covid-19 cases daily, by isolating the patients, and reducing virus exposure and transmission by particle release. These medical devices were donated to our Foundation by the Mabe Company who designed and produced them. Our passion is to help!

/ Karisma Hotels & Resorts

ยกSE E U SOON!

REFLECTIONS

When we, as human beings face times of crisis like the one we are experiencing, we realize how equal we are. All borders have vanished, both geographic and cultural/ racial. Situations like this give us the opportunity to collaborate in solidarity and change what had previously seemed to be so important to us. Paula Negrete

/ Karisma Hotels & Resorts

REFLECTIONS

STAY STRONG, BE THE CHANGE OR BE SUBJECT OF THE CHANGE Sasa Milojevic As I have already said since this pandemic started, we must use this time very wisely to brainstorm on all the challenges we have been facing in the past as a Company and we never had the time to work on as we were “too busy” reaching those sales goals, going above and beyond to satisfy our clients’ needs, looking at the numbers, meeting deadlines, etc. In other words, we must focus on improving all those things we never had the time to focus on in the past.  We must invest our time in transforming/enriching our operational culture to a renewed guest/experience-centered organizational culture, and in order to do this we must change our habits (the most difficult thing to do). The only way is by disturbing the status quo and accepting the reality/consequences derived by the implementation of change. For example, producing a new job description, implementing a new internal protocol (policy and/or procedure), quality/audit program, or training and certification is not enough!  We have to change the way people are interviewed, hired and even adopt new job titles (like we did for weddings a few years ago when we changed the name wedding agents to wedding designers, or bartenders to mix masters in Margaritaville, etc.) We should think, for example, what would happen if we start calling room maids room stylists!? What kind of change may this produce? I think it can produce an amazing change if our team members in Housekeeping department understand that, in addition to proper cleaning and housekeeping technics, they need to do so many extra things that will ensure that customers get this perfect room they expect. Same goes for all other departments and other positions.  We need change on the paradigm rather than old cut/paste method of creating SOPs which nobody follows or very few follow. We need to create culture where every hotel/office will start living our service standards. Room maids (or room stylists) need to understand what is needed and expected to achieve the perfect room and make it their habit to make this perfect room possible. With this crisis we have heard, and are still hearing on a daily basis, so many different advices and possible solutions for all hotel departments, new certifications for hotels that will give our future customers security and worry-free vacations, with the ultimate goal

to enable us to increase our occupancies and rates, but we must not forget many lessons from the past that there is no magic stick that will guarantee permanent results by adopting only “feel good & look good solutions”. We must also focus on planning, production, execution and implementation aspects of our operations by enriching our organizational culture with new habits and our brand and core values. We cannot implement solutions as if this virus will never be brought under control or new ones will not arrive in the future.  Just like the swings on customer priorities and expectations made us create new concepts and became sensible to global/trade issues, or Social Media made us move from the paradigm that a happy customer will possibly share with 3 people their positive experience and at least with 10 their negative experiences, to our new reality where comments are shared with the universe in seconds. We are no longer just service/experience providers, we must recognize the need to become health service/experience providers. Automation, robotics and disposable methods of service will take root. Incredible new standards will come our way. We waited long enough to transform the front desk’s old script. Opening the door with a QR code will no longer be a “nice thing to put in the budget or capex”, it will become the expectation and norm.

In conclusion, these are incredible times to create, implement and lead change. There has never been a more exciting time to be part of a team of change.

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REFLECTIONS

THE NEW NORMAL Beat Muller The COVID19 pandemic is clearly the biggest crisis and global challenge our society has faced since World War II. It overtook us like a tsunami at a frenetic pace and overwhelmed the most organized of systems. Its economic consequences in virtually all countries will keep us very busy for years to come. In the beginning, we were reading the news with interest, to find out more about the possible outcome of what was happening across the globe, and how to try and prepare for it, but nothing could have prepared us for this new reality. It is was very reassuring to see the quick reaction that our hotels in Mexico, the Dominican Republic and Jamaica took, becoming quickly aware of the complicated situation in each property and it was very encouraging to see the commitment they demonstrated in enacting the many tough but necessary adjustments, knowing that we were all in the same boat. We need to enhance our support for the lower-income community, demonstrating Karisma Hotels & Resorts’ commitment to each location and country in which we maintain a presence. We must also recognize the great work of our COVID19 Brigades that are living in our hotels, while maintaining them, so as to be ready to open as soon as possible, in the best and safest way. We know that tomorrow, we will be entering a new era in tourism. At Karisma Hotels & Resorts we have proven ourselves capable of creating the unexpected and of being at the forefront in the industry. When we can receive guests in our hotels again, all teams will be giving even more of themselves, and thanking our guests for choosing us.

We are living and making history. Surely this pandemic will be studied in the future both in schools and universities around the world. At this point there is no superiority of race, religion or economic status. There are no barriers, the impact has truly been global. We have seen how our own Hospitality Industry has been affected by Covid-19, this has helped us to understand that the future of this industry will depend on our being able to adapt to this new era. Those of us who are the heartbeat of the hotel industry have the great opportunity to be participants in this historic change by enacting the new service guidelines for all the employees, guests and owners that are part of our beloved Karisma Hotels & Resorts. We now have precious time to think, create, organize and adapt, it is a great time to reinvent ourselves! Personally, this pandemic has made me reflect a lot on how fragile and vulnerable the human being is. To think about how wrong we were, living the way we did, without really paying attention to what was really important. The experiences that we let slip by, and didn’t give them their due back then: a hug, a kiss, a smile, a quiet chat, a book, a friend or family, and so many other important actions and activities. These have regained the value that they should never have lost, and that makes me real happy!

/ Karisma Hotels & Resorts

As co-workers and partners in this endeavor, we became well aware that we must adapt to this new reality, guaranteeing the best of hygiene and sanitizing operations, which, we hope, will also translate into our always being extra careful in this regard at our facilities. On the upside, being quarantined at home gives us the opportunity to strengthen family ties, a most positive facet of this difficult situation. I believe that the change that awaits all of us will consist of living with more awareness and being more appreciative of living a healthy lifestyle. And, being able to work along with a proactive team that seeks continuous optimization for the benefit of all will be another positive outcome.

Let’s keep on taking good care of our families and environs continually.

WE ARE LIVING HISTORY Daniel Bausà

PWM

Planning for the

RETURN OF TRAVEL

How our Go-To Market Strategies

Covid-19 has changed our world in record time, pausing the hospitality industry with border restrictions, stay-at-home orders, and limited public interactions, let alone international travel. Karisma Hotels & Resorts has responded by prioritizing safety, preserving jobs, and doing good in our communities. At Premier Worldwide Marketing, we have been using this time to develop marketing strategies to help us emerge in a competitive position when travel returns. Think Forward: Pause. Prepare. Proceed. We’ve embraced a forward-looking strategy with distinct phases to pause, prepare, and proceed to ensure that we understand the situation, realign our priorities and move forward with decisive action. As soon as the pandemic was declared, we paused all marketing activity and campaign spending to reassess our efforts. In April and May, we started planning for a relaunch of our brands in the new environment, which we plan to ramp up in June and July as market conditions allow. In August onwards, we will continue to adapt to new the new travel environment and gauge the public demand for travel. Ramping Up: Solidifying our Base Before embarking on any promotional campaigns, we took time to let our PGS members know that we care about them through one-to-one relationship marketing. Then we made it easy for past guests to rebook through targeted communications and created an ongoing campaign to encourage pre-payment with a segmented Choose your Delight campaign. In order to ease any guests concerns about post-covid travel, we’ve also created an extensive Karisma Cares program to build on existing protocols for sanitation, hygiene and social distancing.

Building: Pursuing Like-Minded Guests To stay relevant, we are creating perpetual merchandising strategies in agile new media outlets so that we always have an appealing offer on hand. We’re also exploring packages to appeal to local markets and guests in gateway cities. In terms of branding, we’re strengthening and sharpening our brands in addition to creating new content and new websites. We’ve also hired new agency partners for integrated PR/ social media, brand strategy and digital, and we’re adding value with groups and wedding promotions in addition to weekly webinars. Peak Return: Acquiring Travelers and Cruise Customers We’re going to be ready when travel is at its peak! We’ve enhanced our prospecting models and developed new ways to acquire likeminded guests such as cruisers through key partnerships. We’re planning outof-home takeovers for key tour operators, and we’ll be ramping up targeted media buys for new acquisitions, along with programmatic video buys, including television.

We believe that smart go-to market strategies will differentiate Karisma Hotels & Resorts from the competition and allow us to return stronger, smarter and more in-demand.

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PWM

ONE

Sharing the Karisma Story HOW YOU CAN HELP ON SOCIAL MEDIA

Did you know that social media usage is up 40% since the coronavirus has so many of us staying home? Or that Karisma’s various social media accounts reach more than 1 million followers? With travel on hold, social media is one of the best avenues identified by Premier Worldwide Marketing to reach our customers – and you can help!

One Team, One Voice Harvard Business Review reports that brands that humanize their communciations are more likely to retain customer relationships during a crisis, which has led us to adopt a One Voice strategy. One Voice means that we’ll be bringing together all of our communications to reflect as a single, heartfelt, human tone voice to connect with guests throughout all of our channels. We’re switching from selling to storytelling and trading perfection for authenticity. Responding to Covid-19 by Doing, Sharing and Playing We’re taking advantage of increased social media audiences by posting more frequently and adding rich media like videos to our content calendars. We’ve also adopted a Do, Share, Play strategy to ensure that we’re helping our communities, sharing what’s happening and still taking time to remind guests of the joy of travel. We’ve created a #HolidaysForYourHeroes campaign to give away 150 vacations to frontline workers, which kicked off with this video, earned 400 nominations and drove a 116% in web traffic in its first day! We also thanked our travel agents during Travel Agent Appreciation Week with this video, and we’re continuing to highlight recipies, cocktail tutorials, stretches, dance classes and other fun and engaging content.

/ Karisma Hotels & Resorts

PWM

Early Results We’ve seen tremendous response from our fans, supporting our staff and dreaming about visiting us when travel comes back. Many are calling out specific staff members who went above and beyond during their trips, and sharing past photo memories with us of their favorite vacations through the years. We’re also seeing incredible engagement with our content, with some posts like our Mojito Recipe video and our See You Soon photos on our El Dorado Spa Resorts page tracking engagement rates of 10%. That blows away industry standards, which are between 1-2%! What can you do? We encourage all Karisma employees worldwide to check out all of the fun content and feel-good messaging on social media, and to follow us if you are not already! To view all of our social media accounts for Karisma Hotels, El Dorado Spa Resorts, Azul Beach Resorts, Generations Resorts, Nickelodeon Hotels & Resorts, Margaritaville Island Reserve Resorts and Allure Hotels, visit our website here: https://www. karismahotels.com/social-media. We’ll be posting brand highlights on the Karisma Facebook and Karisma Instagram pages, so please share our posts! And feel free to reach out spiniero@pwmktg.com with any questions.

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COVID-19

PASSION FOR SUSTAINABILITY

The High Price of Messing with Nature

More than a third of the world’s population is currently confined to their homes, that is, almost 2.5 billion human beings of more than 200 nationalities with different languages are sheltered into their own homes to prevent a new virus which is called SARS-CoV-2 from entering into their bodies and causing the disease referred to as COVID-19. And as the days of quarantine pass, millions of people are trying to understand what this virus is, what caused it, and how their relationship with wildlife and the environment at large will change in the future. Once Upon a Time in China In mid-December 2019, a series of cases of atypical pneumonia were reported in the city of Wuhan, in China’s Hubei Province. In mid-January, the Chinese government, through the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), was able to successfully identify the disease agent as a new coronavirus, coronavirus 2019-nCoV, later coined SARS-CoV-2 by the International Committee for Virus Taxonomy (ICTV). The numbers of cases grew dramatically, which is why the World Health Organization (WHO) declared the outbreak a public health emergency of international importance on 30 January this year. It was on February 11 that the WHO referred to the disease as COVID-19 (an acronym for Coronavirus Disease 2019). Finally, on March 11, the WHO declared it a «global pandemic», with a significant presence in more than 200 countries and countless infected and deceased by this disease. The Chinese authorities, with the support of the scientific community, have considered its origin as a «zoonotic disease», in other words a disease that was transmitted from an animal to a human being. However, this transmission had not necessarily happened by the simple food consumption of a particular species, the fundamental cause is found in the whole «commercialization process», from the transfer of its natural habitat to the point of commercialization: transportation (land, aerial, inland or maritime); the arrival to sale points in urban areas (animal markets); the conditions of confinement, generally in unhealthy places (small cages); the coexistence of different wildlife species with different domestic animals; among others.

Notwithstanding this scenario, most of the media based on «scientific information», have found bats responsible for this pandemic as a carrier species of the virus, and pangolins as the species that transmitted it to humans. Although there is still no verifiable scientific basis, since they are simply hypotheses and theories based on previous viral outbreaks (SARS and MERS). Attacks and Stigmatization on Bats The WHO has defined the “infodemic” as misinformation and rumors spreading more quickly than the current outbreak of the new coronavirus (COVID-19). This contributes to negative effects including stigmatization on bats, because it has been presumed that the original reservoir was the Horseshoe bat (Rhinolophus sinicus), because of its similarity to the 2003 SARS-CoV outbreak. On one hand, in mid-March, in the north of Peru, in Cajamarca, province of Santa Cruz, its inhabitants burned hundreds of bats located in a cave near the town. Thanks to the efforts of Jessica Gálvez-Durand, Director of Sustainable Wildlife Management at Peru’s National Forest and Wildlife Service (SERFOR), nearly 200 bats were rescued. Likewise, SERFOR started a strong campaign in social networks to protect these important species. On the other hand, Dr. Rodrigo Medellín, member of the Institute of Ecology of the UNAM and President of the Specialist Group on Bats of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), known as the «Mexican Batman», has shown his concern for this new informative attack against bats. «It inflamed the negative attitude towards bats. And there’s no greater injustice than that. The bats are not to blame. On the contrary, every day they give us great benefits that we do not recognize,” he declared on March 31 to the digital media Mongabay Latam.

All these factors cause wildlife species to become stressed and immunosuppressed, a situation that allows viruses and coronaviruses to be transmitted to other species. Furthermore, and is very important to highlight the fact that:

There are about 1,400 species of bats in the world that play a fundamental role in the health of ecosystems: they are pollinators; seed dispersers; insect pest controllers; among many other environmental functions and services. Bats have a very resistant immune system, which allows them to tolerate different types of viruses, such as coronaviruses. Being a «reservoir species » for these coronaviruses does not mean that they transmit them to humans under normal conditions.

Currently, the scientific community has not yet conclusively determined the species that carries the virus, as well as the species that transmits it to humans. The reason is simple, the «patient zero» of the COVID-19 has not yet appeared.

The main problem is described by two human activities: a) the loss of habitat for these species through deforestation for agricultural activities and commercial plantations; and b) legal trade (or illegal trafficking) of these wild species for consumption or to be sold for the pet market.

ENVIRONMENTAL CALENDAR JUNE-AUGUST 2020 JUNE 03

JUNE 05

JUNE 08

JUNE 12

JUNE 16

World Bicycle Day

World Environment Day

World Oceans Day

World Day Against Child Labor

World Sea Turtle Day

/ Karisma Hotels & Resorts

PASSION FOR SUSTAINABILITY Illegal Trafficking of Species and the Case of Pangolins Species trafficking, that includes animals and plants, is one of the most damaging and profitable illicit businesses in the world. The United Nations estimates that the global illegal trade in wildlife is approximately $23 billion each year, an amount comparable to the one that moves arms and drug trafficking. The most widely trafficked mammal in the world is the pangolin. More than one million pangolins have been killed in species trafficking over the past 15 years. In the first week of February only this year, a container with about 10 tons of pangolin scales was seized in the city of Lagos, Nigeria, to be exported to Asia. This represents approximately 20 thousand dead animals. The pangolin is a small mammal that lives in Africa (4 species) and in Southeast Asia (4 species), it is the only mammal that is totally covered by «scales», which are very appreciated in the Asian markets because they are considered in the Chinese traditional medicine, besides its meat is considered a delicacy in those places. In 2016, the CITES Convention (Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora), which aims to «ensure that international trade in specimens of wild animals and plants does not threaten their survival» and has more than 180 member countries, reached an agreement to totally ban the trade in pangolins, a major step towards protecting the species from extinction. However, illegal trafficking of the species continues. On March 26th a scientific article entitled «Identifying SARS-CoV-2 related coronaviruses in Malayan pangolins» was published in the scientific journal «Nature» considering the Malayan pangolins (Manis javanica) as a possible host species (transmitting animal) of the coronavirus upon discovering the similarity of their genome sequences with those of the virus. The samples were taken from 18 Malaysian pangolins that were seized by Chinese authorities between August 2017 and January 2018 in Guangxi, the southern autonomous region of China that borders Vietnam (one of the international borders with the highest number of wildlife trafficking cases). Samples were examined in early March at the Customs Technology Center in Guangzhou, Canton, finding that these new coronaviruses in the pangolins were similarly sequenced at 85.5% to 92.4% with SARS-CoV-2. Conclusions for Action Wildlife is not responsible for the pandemic. The sole responsible is a species, a domesticated species (that is not domesticated). This species is HOMO SAPIENS, that primate of the hominid family that currently has a super-population of more than 7.7 billion people and that due to its «productive» activities. Through a voracious economic model of the planet’s natural resources, it has caused more than one million species of plants and animals to be currently in danger of extinction, according to the last Report of the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES7, 2019), the body which assesses the state of biodiversity and of the ecosystem services it provides to society, in response to request from decision makers.

Bats do not cause pandemics or attack humans. Coronaviruses have been found in various wildlife species for thousands of years, and many of them, such as bats, have generated an autoimmune system to the effects of these viruses. Bats do not attack humans or cause pandemics. On the contrary, bats generate immense benefits to humans: pollinators of very important crops; controllers of insect pests; they are fundamental species for the health of terrestrial ecosystems. It is urgent to close the Wildlife markets for human consumption. Destroying the habitat of many species that host many pathogens in wildlife and their transportation to markets where they are traded live or dead, under unsanitary and stressful conditions, and living alongside many other wildlife and domestic species under precarious conditions is creating a high-risk interface for the emergence and transmission of zoonotic pathogens that can cause pandemics (SARS, MERS, COVID-19). The only exception should be for subsistence consumption by indigenous peoples and some local communities, ensuring that they do not endanger a threatened or endangered species. As well as a Protocol for the evaluation of sanitary measures for zoonotic transmission should be provided. International frontal and coordinated combat to the illegal trade of Wildlife. The effective enforcement of environmental regulations must be done in a coordinated, transparent and informed manner. Tools for traceability, certification and monitoring of legal and illegal wildlife trade should be developed and implemented. Lastly, it is very important that we radically change our behavior and our relationships towards wildlife and animals in general. We are not just talking about a conservation issue; we are talking about a public health issue. The immediate priority now is to protect people from this virus and prevent its spread. However, the medium- and long-term response must focus on preventing habitat and biodiversity loss. As Inger Andersen, Executive Director of the United Nations Environment Programme, points out, “We are intimately interconnected with nature, whether we like it or not. If we don’t take care of nature, we can’t take care of ourselves.”

Any damage to the planet also means damage to humanity. Article by José Luis Funes is an environmental lawyer with a Master’s Degree in Environmental Law, a specialist in national and international environmental policy, and was the General of Wildlife at SEMARNAT. READ THE FULL POST HERE

JULY O3

JULY 11

JULY 26

AUGUST 09

National Tree Day (Mexico)

World Population Day

International Day for the Protection of the Mangrove Ecosystem

International Day of the World’s Indigenous Peoples

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HUMAN CAPITAL

RESILIENCE How to adapt to change and recuperate from adversity

Just back in 2013, the World Economic Forum declared that year as an urgent “Year for Building Resilience” as it had become evident that our ability to act properly in the face of adversity and solve problems was a major problem within businesses. The following week, Shell, Walmart, UBS, Johnson & Johnson, Volkswagen, General Motors, Merck and other multinationals launched Resilience Workshops to raise maximum awareness in their employees.

Resilience is defined as the great ability that every living being has to face and recover from any adversity. Human beings have various types of resilience: biological, emotional, psychological or cognitive, muscular, etc. It is also a quality that can be fostered in structured bodies such as between mates, within families, work groups and entire companies - in a communal/collaborative, metropolitan and global manner. When used, this ability to be resilient increases, but, conversely, resilience decreases when it’s not used regularly. Resilience enables all living things to achieve their highest possible state of wellbeing. The degradation of this capacity is generally induced by one’s own culture and passed down to each family generation. It is increasingly common to find parents who do not allow or do not encourage their children to develop critical, analytical, systematic or creative thinking. Sweden, Finland and Norway are known to be very resilient people. They raise their children well and run their businesses by using questions effectively and asking for opinions, rather than succumbing to the common practice of mandating commands, then, issuing orders only when it is something extremely important or urgent. They promote limits and self-discipline by personal conviction, rather than by obligation. This leads to training people to use their own criterion, their own analytical skills and ability to make their own decisions in life planning, pro-activity and coping methods. In the world we live in today, it makes sense to really want to strengthen ourselves, because we are at a historical and critical point in time, where change becomes imperative for survival. Those who have not developed this ability to face change as something natural and organic, are those who will have the greatest difficulties in coping.

Pillars for dealing with resilience

Introspection

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Independence

Knowing How To Relate

HUMAN CAPITAL

Resilience in the Company

Imagine what it would be like if a whole company would be capable of solving every adversity, every operation, process or product launch. Imagine what it would have been like to face this pandemic with a team where, at least, all had already developed some basic resilience skills. So, what do we learn from this? It would seem that understanding resilience and putting this ability into practice in our work operations is now an imperative in order to enhance actions both at work and in personal lives, as new challenges and adversities will surely keep coming. Given this backdrop, we need to provide our employees with the tools that will help all to achieve a higher level of well-being. In other words, we must help our collaborators to form the eight pillars that were established in 2012 at the World Resilience Congress in Paris: introspection, independence, knowing how to relate, initiative, humor, creativity, morality, and solid self-esteem. Within our company, fostering these pillars will result in increasing mutual trust, increasing positivism, improving coping and autonomy mechanisms, overcoming low self-esteem, and improving self-awareness, strengthening responsibility, enabling intelligent socializing, and helping to be able to deal with frustration. There is no doubt that we are at the threshold of a new era in humanity where the development of these issues becomes a genuine need in order to achieve global development. Faced with the imminent breakdown of structures, procedures, and protocols of life as we know it, resilience Humorbecomes an essential ability to be able to actively overcome the new challenges that we are already experiencing.

Initiative

Humor

Creativity

Morality

Solid Self-Esteem

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KARISMA FOUNDATION

Three

Initially it would have seemed that Covid-19, the disease produced by SARSCOV-2, would pose a lower risk than the influenza epidemic given that the latter can spread more easily. However, this has not been the case.

HEALTH RISK

Substantial Covid-19 medical research is currently underway and many results have made it clear that the damage produced by this virus is more aggressively done when certain health risk factors are present such as obesity, diabetes mellitus type 2 and hypertension. People with these conditions are more likely to develop serious complications that can even cause death.

Factors OBESITY

Excess fat in the body is scientifically associated with an inflammatory condition and this, combined with a disease, can trigger an “inflammatory storm” to which the body will try to defend itself by causing collateral damage to organs such as lungs, heart, kidney, etc. Additionally, people with a high degree of obesity have lung complications due to pressure exerted on organs, which increases the risk of complications in the event of respiratory disease.

TYPE 2 DIABETES MELLITUS

A patient with long-evolving or uncontrolled diabetes may have multiple organ damage. Covid-19 causes damage at the systemic level as it produces insulin resistance.

HYPERTENSION

Covid-19 increases blood pressure due to pulmonary edema, resulting in alveolar obstruction caused by pulmonary tamponade.

The coronavirus virus not only paralyzed the world, it has strived to make us more aware of the need to take care of our health. If now we know that having any chronic and degenerative disease decreases our quality of life and can lead to death or lifelong complications, why not embrace the commitment to lose weight, decrease our glycemic index and prevent hypertension?

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With great vision, Karisma Foundation has been working for more than three years on a health care scheme to promote the health of our employees. Today more than ever we believe that this is the basic principle to prevent such epidemics from paralyzing the world.

Take care of yourself and your family, and together, let´s save the world.

KARISMA FOUNDATION

Hygiene as an

PREVENTIVE MEASURE During this pandemic we have heard a lot about the importance of maintaining our hygiene in order to prevent coronavirus infection. However, these habits we are acquiring are powerful means to prevent other diseases as well. WHO promotes establishing certain hygiene habits such as frequent and proper hand washing, as well as food hygiene to stay in good health. Here in Karisma we urge you to continue taking the following actions to prevent health complications:

Donâ€™t touch your eyes, nose or mouth

Safe distance Keeping a distance of 1.5 meters from other people helps prevent the spread of respiratory diseases through droplets and fomites.

Hand hygiene Wash your hands frequently with soap and water (for approximately 20 seconds) and/or use 70% alcohol-based gel. This measure helps reduce the spread of diarrhea and respiratory diseases.

Hands are constantly touching surfaces that could be contaminated. Touching your eyes, nose or mouth with contaminated hands can cause disease transfer or infection.

Clean and disinfect commonly used surfaces and objects Cleaning helps prevent the spread of germs, viruses, dirt, and impurities that can cause disease

Good hygiene habits can help prevent these types of disease: Gastrointestinal

- Salmonellosis - Parasitosis - Shigella - Amoeba - Cholera

Dermatological - Acne - Chickenpox - Scabies - Herpes

Viral

- Influenza - Coronavirus - Hepatitis - Meningitis - Mumps

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TRAINING

WEBINARS The learning and teaching experience Traditionally, almost all of the training in our company has been given in a classroom-type setting. However, the health contingency we are going through has allowed us to prioritize other teaching options such as online training. This has become a reality in our companyÂ´s day-to-day operations, across departments and hierarchies, in particular through our offer of internal online seminars or Webinars, which are constantly increasing and improving to provide access to quality learning, imparted by several of our expert collaborators on various current topics as well as continuous skill development. You may not have heard much about webinars until before we started this quarantine, but this form of online training had already been widely disseminated and boomed in the business world for many years. However, the widespread need in all sectors to resume training from home has increased the webinar offer in areas or disciplines that did not use to rely so much on this tool, and the same has happened with us.

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TRAINING

You are invited to keep attending the various webinars offered throughout each week, hoping that you will be benefitted by acquiring and sharing different types of knowledge not only with the presenters, but with all the collaborators from the different countries where we keep a presence, who meet with each other in these important virtual forums. See you in the next one!

MONTSERRAT CARRADA TRAINING MANAGER EXOTIC & PRESTIGE

Indeed, this opportunity has allowed people who did not traditionally take or impart a lot of face-to-face training because of its limitations, to not only do so from home in live or recorded formats depending on what´s more convenient, but also to experiment delivering webinars for the first time, alongside the various associated challenges. Among them is not only to motivate many new technology users to lose the fear of interacting with it, but also to discover and master new functionalities of corporate technological tools that had been available for long, but may have not been well known to many because of the lack of need for this type of solutions in their usual operations. On the other hand, it has been necessary to create and establish new interdepartmental dynamics to create contents and automate related processes such as promotion, scheduling, and record management. Fortunately, all these challenges have led us to acquire and develop new skills and competencies, generating varied team synergies that we hope are here to stay. We would also like to take this opportunity to share with you that long before this pandemic, Karisma had clearly identified the virtues and need for an online training system accessible to all its employees anytime, anywhere. Moreover, the company´s pursuit of having its own platform has borne fruit and Karisma has just released its Learning Management System named “AcademiK”.

Creating webinars of immediate value and introducing face-toface courses to this modality has been an incredible opportunity to learn to get the most out of the technological tools that the company offers, in order to train us, and above all, to motivate our teams, since now, more than ever, we must be united. In addition, of course, since we have been able to be more in contact with our sister hotels in other countries such as Colombia, etc. I have learned that in these times, above all, we must be passionate about innovating and working as a team despite our distances.

BÁRBARA ESPINOSA IT PROJECT MANAGER KARISMA HOTELS & RESORTS

Although it is not the same as being face to face with the staff, the advantage of the webinars is that they save resources and save time, giving us the opportunity to deliver training to all our global offices simultaneously. It mainly changes the format and the methods of interaction with participants, but both can equally be effective and enriching.

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F&B

COOK ·LIKE A REAL·

CHEF

The F&B team, from their own homes, proudly provide delicious and simple recipes, along with their instructions and even their secrets so you can enjoy yourself with some ritzy home-cooking.

Since we are stuck in our homes, we take this opportunity to share some of our recipes for you and your family. Enjoy! And stay at home! This recipe serves 4 people.

RECIPE

Dry Noodles

INGREDIENTS

· · · · · · · · · · · · · ·

Efraín Arias Corporate Chef El Dorado Hotels

Dry Chilli Pepper“Ancho”

PREPARATION

Dry Chilli Pepper “Morita”

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6 Tomatoes 1 Avocado  3 Smoked, Dried Red Jalapeno Peppers (morita) 3 Ancho Chili Peppers 2 Smoked Chipotle Peppers 1/2 White Onion   3   Whole, peeled garlic cloves    1   Package of #0 noodles, or Cambray 360g. 1/4  Liter of Sour Cream  1/4   Kilo (1/2lb) of ‘Rancho’ Cheese 1/4   Cup of Sunflower Oil 1   Cup of Water   Salt to taste Black Pepper to taste

· Place the dried chilies in a saucepan, add water until covered, cook for 2 min over medium heat, place the re-hydrated seedless chilies in the blender together with the tomatoes (cut in halves), garlic, onion and chipotle chilis to liquefy and strain. Put the strained mixture in a frying pan over medium heat and cook for 5 min, adding the salt and pepper to taste. · Put oil in a frying pan, fry the pasta until it turns to a golden hue. · When it is ready, add the pasta to the chili sauce, and cook for 12 min over low heat until the pasta is completely cooked, then cover and let stand for 3 min . · For the creamy avocado mix, place the sour cream in the blender, add the avocado and blend until you have a smooth mixture, then season with salt and pepper. · Assembling the dish: place the noodles in the center of the dish, garnish with the rancho cheese, creamy avocado, and avocado slices.

F&B

Pozole History Sculpture of Xipe Totec Our Lord the Flayed

We are coming up on September 15th, so, start practicing and cook this dish at home, “Pozole”, an emblematic dish with entrenched Mexican history. Go ahead, it’s not complicated if you prepare it from the heart for someone you love and cherish. When you are cooking you can face your fears. Cooking can put you in a state of relaxation and concentration. You are able to transport yourself to other times and other eras. You could research the origin of the ingredients or products and give your cuisine a different personality, you can create historical moments for your guests, as you delve them into alternate times and gastronomic legends. This dish has been documented by several of the friars (some who were peninsular, others creole or even mestizo) who arrived in New Spain many years after the fall of Tenochtitlán. Among them, Friar Bernardino de Sahagún stands out, who wrote about this unique dish in his monumental work: “General History of Things in New Spain”. We can affirm that he wrote it feeling some deep disgust, since the ancient Mexicas prepared the pozole with the flesh of captives slaughtered in some festivals, mainly those dedicated to Our Lord the Flayed, Xipe Totec. In this celebration, which was named Tlacaxipehualiztli, the famous gladiatorial “scourging” sacrifices were performed, where a captive warrior was tied to a temalacatl (a large cylindrical stone, like the Tizoc stone, from the old Palace of the Archbishopric or the Stone of the Sun) at the waist to face the great Mexica fighters (cuauhpilli and ocelopilli) who were armed to the teeth. After being killed, the captive was skinned and dismembered for consumption. The right thigh always went to the Huey Tlahtoani palace, to express gratitude and show respect. As the Sahagún chronicles commented, the thighs were the part where the meat with the best flavor and texture was found. The left thigh and both arms were the property of the warrior who had captured his enemy in battle. However, he could not consume them, since, from the Mexica point of view, the captor became the captive’s father and the captive became his son. His relatives, brothers in arms, the leaders of the Calpulli were preparing to eat it at a great banquet. (It is important to clarify that among the Mexicas there was ritual anthropophagy, in other words, cannibalism, the consumption of human meat for religious purposes.) This privilege belonged to a select group of the great population of Tenochtitlán, the nobles, the rulers, the warriors and the teteuctin (lords). When these rituals were carried out, Sahagún comments that the meat cooked for consumption was never roasted, but boiled. One of the most common ways of consuming human meat was in pozolli, a word that in Nahuatl means foamy or boiled (foam was pronounced apotzontli, potzonalli). Since times of the Excan Tlatolloyan (Triple Alliance), a variety of corn was used that we now call cacahuacintle, whose main characteristic is the large size of its grains. Of course, this ritual cannibalism that was practiced among the Nahua, was an aberration to Europeans, so it was decided to import large numbers of pigs to the land, since the indigenous people said that their meat was very similar in taste, texture and fat as human flesh. So, this is one of the main reasons why Mexico is one of the top pork-consuming countries in the world. You are cordially invited to come cook with me and Santi, better known as the Shark.

José María Mejía Corporate Chef

Karisma Hotels & Resorts

RECIPE

Pozole INGREDIENTS · · · · · · · · · · · ·

500g White Pozole corn, precooked.  1 head of garlic 1 onion 3 cooked guajillo chilis  1 kilo pork: backbone, leg and top loin (head/cabeza) 1 romaine lettuce, chopped 1 radish bunch  1 chopped onion  Lime, dry oregano, chili flakes (Pepperoncini) as garnish  Deep-fried pork rind, to taste  Fresh cheese, to taste  Salt

PREPARATION · Take the parboiled corn out of the bag and rinse, then bring to a boil, simmer for 2 hours with the onion (char-grilled, caramelized), and add the small head of garlic. Let cool once the corn kernels burst open, then set aside. Cook the meat separately and when it is cooked, add the meat stock to the cracked corn pot so that it thickens. · De-vein the chilis and soak them for 20 minutes in hot water. Blend the chilies in the same water and add them to the pot of the pozole, which will make the mixture red, then season with salt. · Serve the dish with the corn and the meat (shredded/pulled) and garnish with the chopped lettuce, radishes, chopped onion, pork rinds, avocado, dried oregano, dried ground chili, fresh cheese, tortilla chips and lemon. Add your favorite garnish, according to the state of the Mexican Republic where you live, since in each state, each Mexican family serves this dish differently. · You can also make ‘tostadas’ and top with the shredded pork and accompany them with tomato sauce blended with oregano, cream, onion, lettuce, chopped radishes and chili.

And, don’t worry... the pork recipe below is mere Gastronomic history.

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COLLABORATOR MEETINGS

WORKING FROM HOME

CH KRM

ALH

EDR-El Dorado Royale a SPA Resort, by Karisma / EDCR-El Dorado Casitas Royale a SPA Resort, by Karisma / GRM-Generations Resorts, by Karisma / EDS-El Dorado Seaside a SPA Resort, by Karisma / EDM-El Dorado Maroma a SPA Resort, by Karisma / ABR-Azul Beach Riviera CancÃºn, by Karisma / ABH-Azul Beach Riviera Maya, by Karisma 24

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COLLABORATOR MEETINGS

CP EDS

VNT

CH ABR

ABN-Azul Beach Negril, by Karisma / ECW-El Cielo Wnery &Resort, by Karisma / SNH-TUI Sensatori Punta Cana &NickelodeonTM Hotels & Resorts Punta Cana / ALHAllure Hotels, by Karisma / CH KRM Capital Humaho Karisma MÃ©xico issuu.com/karisma-mx /

COLLABORATOR MEETINGS

E&P

ABN

SPA

CP IRRC

NEG

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COLLABORATOR MEETINGS

A&D

A&B

SPA

WHAT IS WELL-BEING? Describing Well-being or Wellness nowadays is to say that it is a lifestyle since it involves a constant search for activities that lead one to a full life in which the main objective is to be in balance in body, mind and soul. This synergy is the result of the balance that should be maintained in all oneâ€™s senses to achieve total enjoyment.

The important thing about Well-being or Wellness is that, by the time you reach that point of balance, it will have already become oneâ€™s way of life How do I achieve it? BODY Through physical activity, simple meditation or breathing exercises that allow connection with your inner self. MIND Connecting with happiness, leaving behind fears, and connecting with the most important thing, inner peace. SOUL The soul can be fed in several ways, for example, by listening to the music you like or playing a musical instrument, the noise of ocean waves, meditating in prayer, enjoying the aroma of wet soil, an image of nature or even simple paintings of Tibetan mandalas.

We could summarize that Wellness consists of achieving a balance between mind, body and soul.

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SOON