Club Med
Posted By Ian Phillips on 3 April 1998
Club Mediteranne, as it is properly known, has an enviable history in the travel industry. They have long been a major player in the "all-inclusive" resort industry. There are industry estimates that describe Club Med as owning 10% of the beds in the worldwide all-inclusive market. I can't help but think that this kind of size could be a double-edged sword. But, the development of this monster and how they got into diving is a really interesting story.
The origins of the company lie with a French/Belgian tent maker who suddenly ran out of customers at the end of World War II. The various armies in Europe stopped fighting and at the same time stopped buying his tents. It was a classic business catastrophe. The Frenchman turned his energies to housing a shell-shocked and homeless population. That worked fairly well for a couple years, but those shell-shocked people very quickly re-built their homes. Europe in winter is no place to be living in a tent.
This "about too become poor" fellow turned his attention to a different market. He took his experience in building tents that were made to survive a war and decided to build tents that would be erected semi-permanently and used as a resort. He reasoned that it wouldn't take much to convince large numbers of war-weary Europeans to take a vacation. He was right. His marketing was pretty smart too. Each vacationer became a "Member" of this new "Club." And as the program was marketed pretty much only in France, everyone became known as a "Gentile Membre" or Gentle Member. Everyone that is, except the organizers at the village who were known as "Gentile Organisateurs." These terms are still used but they are usually shortened to GM and GO. And every village worldwide still has a decidedly French flavor to it.
The first village was on a beach in Spain. It's not far from France. Land was cheap and so was the local labor. It's funny, but even today most of the villages are located where the land and local labor are both really cheap. The first couple of summers were tremendously profitable and the decision was made to expand quickly. One problem that became apparent was a lack of qualified GO's who were willing to work for the same pay as an olive picker. Again, it's kind of funny, because this is still a problem. And these days Spanish olive pickers get paid better than GO's. That's why there aren't very many Spanish GO's.
The chiefs at Club Med hit upon a uniquely cheap solution that involved Tahitian university students. Tahiti and French Polynesia have been a Department of France for a very long time. Even during WWII, these islands were garrisoned with French troops to protect them from Japanese invasion. Not that they ever were, but hey, the troops were there. After the war, the richer families from the islands began sending their older children to France for schooling. Well, transportation wasn't as well developed then as it is today and those kids didn't go home for their summer vacation. Instead, they hung around the squares and plazas of Paris, played their guitars and ukuleles, drank beer and wine, made more Tahitians, and played whatever games they could, usually using a soccer ball as a soccer ball rather than a coconut.
Well, the guys in charge of the fledgling Club Med gave these kids a place as GO's. They were offered free meals and accommodations in exchange for a beach to play on. The parents were ecstatic, because they didn't have to pay rent. The kids were just happy to have a beach. And they went and did all the things that Tahitians would do on a beach, including making more Tahitians and playing soccer with a coconut. They also brought their ukuleles and did a lot of singing, particularly at night, after having drunk a lot of beer and wine. They were happy, the chiefs were happy, and the Spanish are still picking olives.
This may all sound a bit frivolous, but it actually explains many of the customs of Club Med today. A lot of the villages are oriented around life on the beach. The first sports to be taught at the first villages were swimming and spearfishing. Today, Club Med teaches snorkeling and scuba diving. In the old days, they really did play soccer with a coconut. Today, most villages organize a number of land sports, including volleyball, tennis, and aerobics. The early tradition that was singing on the beach at night transformed itself into a nightly extravaganza show that starts sometime shortly after dinner.
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