Africa-Press – Mauritius. The Mauritian hotel chain Sun Resorts, which includes the houses Sugar Beach, La Pirogue, Amber and the private island Ile aux Cerfs, has now become Sunlife.
With the renaming, there was also a change in the offer: each hotel offers very special experiences for the guests. Joelle Edwards-Tonks is Chief Sales & Marketing Officer at Sunlife and e.
g. also responsible for the reorientation of the hotels in Mauritius. “For us, it was always about more than just a conventional rebranding; namely a change process that breathes new life into a long-established brand.
The rebranding process has been underpinned by a new vision, purpose and values that form the bedrock of our transformation,” she explains. These values are love, dreams and attention.
This realignment came at the right time, since the world has changed after the pandemic, Sunlife CEO Francois Eynaud agrees with his colleague. “We asked ourselves a lot of questions, including ‘what constitutes a holiday?’ A good room and good food in a beautiful setting used to be enough.
Today, however, guests want to be participants rather than customers. They want more activities and more sustainability. That’s why we hired two guest experience designers and worked with them to develop 25 experiences – the Come Alive Collection – that fit each resort,” says Eynaud.
The hotel chain therefore also invited to a varied and intensive event on the island to test the various new activities. A task that I was very happy to accept.
Active in sports
In colonial Sugar Beach, which had only recently been completely renovated, there was the opportunity to prove oneself in the “Crazy Croquet” in keeping with the flair of the hotel.
Instructors, traditionally dressed all in white, gave the necessary instructions to be able to witness the superior Austrian victory in the country match against Switzerland (2nd place) and Germany (3rd place) live – my personal come-alive highlight.
I was less in the foreground at the sweaty “Sega Zoomba” workout in La Pirogue, which is directly adjacent to Sugar Beach, which is an icon of the Mauritian hotel industry and has been a very popular destination for German-speaking guests for a good 40 years.
Passively creative
Other new activities at the 4-star resort include “Marsan Confit” – a charismatic storyteller, with a wealth of anecdotes about the island’s history, serving guests Mauritian refreshments in the form of chili-pickled vegetables and fruit, or “Village Vibe” – where the culture of the island is also the focus.
At the reception, guests are offered the Mauritian attitude to life with local art, refreshments and rum as soon as they check in. Your own creativity was called for when the “pirogue painting” was about painting a pirogue (typical Mauritian fishing boat).
Croquet was definitely easier for me.
“Coral Farming” is dedicated to sustainability and species protection. Everything revolves around the conservation and re-cultivation of corals.
Special flavors
Back at Sugar Beach, the focus was on the sense of taste and smell: At “Time for Tea” we tested excellent types of tea with the matching types of sugar, for which Mauritius is known and famous.
Specially created pastries gave the newly introduced experience a special touch. Notes were also dominant in “L’Atelier les Sens” when it came to creating their own perfume.
We were able to choose from 128 different fragrances – under professional guidance – in order to combine 15 of them into a unique bouquet. “This Come Alive Collection activity is chargeable and lasts around an hour and a half,” explained perfumer Pushkar. Couples can compose their own personal scent here and also order it in France. According to Pushkar, the exact recipe is documented.
Pure relaxation and partying
Also available for a fee is the “Beauty Bubble”, an inflatable, air-conditioned beauty salon in Sugar Beach’s garden, where guests can take a break from the environment with a manicure or pedicure overlooking the Indian Ocean – including a relaxing massage.
This came at the right moment – namely before the big party on the occasion of our visit with around 600 invited guests. In the evenings, local artists entertained on several stages with dances and shows, the kitchen team spoiled guests at various stations, bartenders mixed perfect cocktails, an astronomer provided a view of Saturn with his telescope – to name just a few highlights.
Colorful fireworks marked the end of the successful show. Once across the island
For us, the Come Alive Event was not over yet. It went – from the west coast across Mauritius to the east – to the third Sunlife, the Long Beach.
Architecturally, the youngest house in the group is completely different: modern villas in lush vegetation, with concrete dominating in the public areas.
There, too, we were able to convince ourselves of the new Come Alive Collection. We were offered relaxation on the “Swing & Drift” hammocks, which were set up in particularly quiet areas of the resort.
A massage and delicious chocolates were a bonus. We felt like we were in an alchemist’s kitchen at “Sante”, where experimental cocktails with local flavors were “cooked” for us.
Interesting experiences
After this very special activity in the smoky atmosphere, we went to the botany, where we also met the children’s club mascot “Izzy The Bee”, who watches over the five beehives that are found in every Sunlife hotel.
We learned even more about sustainability in the Biodiversity Park, a small piece of forest where work and research is being done on reforesting the original Mauritian vegetation.
“98% of natural forest cover has been destroyed over the course of history,” explained the ranger, underscoring the importance of thinking and acting sustainably.
The Long Beach also showed itself to be sustainable at our last station “Transforming the Piazza”, where the “main square” of the hotel was transformed into a Mauritian village and local products and artists were the focus.
Like the last subheading, my personal conclusion about the Come Alive Collection is: Very many – interesting, sometimes exciting, amusing, but also relaxing – experiences that will definitely be appreciated and move with the times. My highlights: “Crazy Croquet”, “L’Atelier” and “Coral Farming”.
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