Face-to-Face – Vladimir Scanu
Travel Daily talks with Vladimir Scanu, General Manager of the luxury Maldives resort, Kanuhura
Q) Please can you give out readers a brief outline of your resort and its key selling points?
Looking for heaven on earth? You’ll find it at Kanuhura. The resort is a member of the Leading Hotels of the World and attracts luxury-loving celebrities and royalty. Despite the glitzy guest list, this island is truly chilled-out. ‘Barefoot Luxury’ is what you’ll experience here.
We are blessed to have one of the largest and finest beaches in the Maldives and offer more than 25 different snorkelling and dive sites. The outer reef drops down more than 1,200 metres and is home to incredible marine life. The resort’s nature and location is by far its biggest key selling point.
If you’re staying in a stilted Water Villa, don’t miss the chance to take a dip in the huge bath one night. Next to you is a well, lit with blue lights that attract a frenzy of fish in the lagoon below. The Beach Villas have their own stretch of sand leading down to the lagoon.
During the day, you can play tennis, squash, dive or try yoga, and each evening you can walk to the end of the jetty and lie on an enormous daybed to watch the sunset streak across the sky, or dance the night away on the beach at Kanuhura’s full moon party.
If you want to escape to paradise or are looking for the dream honeymoon, Kanuhura is just the tonic.
Q) What are you key visitor source markets, and are you noticing any increase in visitors from Asia’s emerging markets, such as China?
Asia is indeed picking up in the last years and we do have more demand. Nevertheless our key market is still Central Europe.
Q) How has the resort performed in 2012, and did you see any impact from the unrest in the Maldives earlier this year?
We didn’t experience any drop in performance whatsoever this year. In fact Kanuhura experienced the best first quarter in its history, and 2012 will be one of the best performing years in a long time for Kanuhura. The unrest didn’t affect the travel behaviour of our key markets and we are confident the Maldives will reach the one million visitor mark in 2012.
Q) Last year you opened a unique new restaurant – Kandu. Can you explain the restaurant concept, and what the guest response has been to this new offering?
Kanuhura is the only resort in the Maldives offering its guests a grilled lunch restaurant on a deserted Island. A two-minute private boat ride takes guests to Jehunuhura with its white covered chairs and tables immersed in nature, surrounded by the turquoise sea. Kandu means ‘Deep Sea’ in Dhivehi – the local Maldivian language – and as such the cuisine is inspired by indigenous cooking techniques such as simple grilled fish and crustaceans. It is the perfect place to immerse oneself in a freshly caught culinary experience while sipping a chilled wine. I couldn’t bear the idea of having such a unique food & beverage retreat closed. We brought it back to life and our 40% repeat guests were simply blown away.
5) What further developments can we expect to see at Kanuhura over the next 12 months?
We are well aware of the industry moving very quickly in Maldives with new developments and openings every quarter of the year. Our 40% repeater ratio is proof that we are doing things right and that the product is accepted by our guests. We are trying to keep standards high and of course have many surprises to come for our repeaters as well as for all our new guests. Expect the unexpected!