Margaret

Does anyone know which Club Med resorts have been shut down? I heard that the ones in the Bahamas are closed indefinitely (permanently?) as well as most of the clubs on the west coast of Mexico and some in the Caribbean. I was booked at Huatulco with a group in Feb., but apparently it has been closed, and we were switched to Ixtapa. The person in charge of my group said that 40-50 clubs have just been closed, but didn't know any specific ones besides Huatulco. I read an article in the NY Times but they were vague about everything.

tivertonhouse

I have heard on the grapevine/not confirmed/that most Caribbean and some Mediterranean Club Meds closed for unspecified time.There's a great Club Med in Agadir, on the southern coast of Morocco--an easy overnight from nyc via casablanca--that might prove a good alternative. The Club Med at Punta Cana in DR also decent.

Lara

There's a press release on clubmed.com that details the clubs that are closed temporarily. The only NAmerican club that was closed permanently was Sonora Bay.

Mariarosa

I am disapointed to hear Sonora Bay Club Med has closed because my husband is very interested in learning to kite-board and they (use to) have a program there, included in the price of a regular stay (quite a bargain really). The idea of learning to kite-board always figured among our "someday" trips, but never as the kind of trip that we wanted to take right away. I guess if he's going to learn to kite-board we'll have to look somewhere else.

joan

Here is partial text of the press release referred to above: (I really had to search to find it - it's under "financial information" if you'd like to see the whole thing.)

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Today, in view of the overall reduction in bookings made in recent weeks, Club Méditerranée has decided to adjust temporarily the number of villages open for the 2001-2002 Winter season.

The group has therefore decided to implement the following measures, concerning fifteen villages in about 10 countries:

Temporary closure for the Winter season (or for the whole year) of villages (or villas) where booking levels are judged to be insufficient : Huatulco, Playa Blanca and Sonora Bay in Mexico (closing for the whole year) ; St. Lucia in the Caribbean, Assinie on the Ivory Coast, Cherating Beach in Malaysia, Mare Nostrum in Greece, Colombus in the Bahamas, Coral Beach in Israel ; Amoun (villa) in Egypt ; Tenerife (in the Canaries) ;
Temporary closure of a village where significant renovation work is planned (Djerba la Douce in Tunisia) or definitive closure of villages coming to the end of their lease (Leysin in Switzerland) or of operations (sale of Byron Bay in Australia) ;
Furthermore, provisional closure of a small number of villages (about 4/5) where the outlook for occupancy could generate significant losses. The list of these villages is being studied and will be according to booking levels in the weeks to come.