GRUPO PLAN / HACIENDAS DEL MUNDO MAYA, MEXICO

Winner Community Benefit Award 2005

Grupo Plan is a Mexican company founded in 1992, dedicated to real estate development, that owns several luxury resorts, hotels, golf resorts and tourism projects on the Pacific Coast, Mexico City and the Yucatan Peninsula. In Yucatan Grupo Plan developed a project called The Haciendas.

In their heyday, in the 1920s, the haciendas were booming henequen plantations which supported their local communities but by the 1990s they had been abandoned, surrounded by hundreds of indigenous communities that lived in unfavorable conditions. In early 1996 Grupo Plan acquired some of the old haciendas, which were rebuilt by an interdisciplinary team, included architects, specialist historians, hoteliers, trainers and social workers to breathe life back into these communities.
This project is the unique result of the blending between a tourism project, The Haciendas and Fundacion Haciendas del Mundo Maya A.C., a nonprofit organisation and Grupo Plan's philanthropic division. The Foundation is dedicated to developing and implementing social projects based on five areas: health, education, housing, environment and productive projects in the highly marginalised communities were the haciendas are located.
Behind The Haciendas lies the story of steely faith in the power of environmental conservation and the preservation of the cultural heritage and traditions of the Mayan communities. Providing exclusivity, luxury travel and an exceptional customer satisfaction in each of The Haciendas. One example is Hacienda Temozon, which has been honored with receiving many special guests, such as Bill Clinton and George W. Bush, both as Presidents of the United States of America in two different bilateral meetings.
Now operated by Starwood Hotel & Resorts Worldwide, under the brand of The Luxury Collection, The Haciendas are a successful tourism business providing jobs, support and social welfare for the communities which surround them.