SHORT BREAKS selling & HOLIDAYS 8 Belfast 14 thisissue
If this endless summer of top-class sport on our own playing fi elds proved one thing it is that the UK likes nothing better than
winners it can call its own. Twenty-nine ‘golds’ at the Olympics, along with an avalanche of medals made from less precious metals – and another bumper haul at the Paralympics – was a more than healthy return, but it wasn’t just those athletes who got on to the podium who came away feeling triumphant. For there are plenty of victorious sounds coming from those promoting UK tourism. And the focus going forward won’t be, as in the past, just on inbound travel to these shores. In fact, the penny seems to have fi nally dropped that any national tourism strategy for the UK is not complete if it doesn’t also target ‘domestic travellers’. Better still, the trade is being lined up as the crucial element in the ‘distribution chain’. As VisitEngland’s Chief Executive James Beresford points out in our interview on page 25, it is still – rather bizarrely – easier to buy an overseas holiday product than it is to purchase a domestic one. To help change this, VisitEngland will launch a major campaign next year to urge consumers to book with their local travel agent. To get ready for the wave of enquiries about holidays in places as far fl ung as Exmouth and the Isle of Eigg, agents should keep reading Selling Short Breaks and Holidays for news of Travel Uni’s new VisitEngland training programme. Talking of winners, we urge all agents to vote in our 2012 Travel Agents Choice Awards. Full details of how you can help ‘reward’ the travel industry’s best performers this year appear on pages 34-35. Register your preferences and you might pick up a star prize of your own – like six nights in South Africa, a hot air balloon ride in the USA or a case of wine! So cast your vote now and put yourself in the frame to join this year’s cast of victors!
10 NORTHERN LIGHTS 12
10 Northern Lights
BALEARICS SWITZERLAND
26 MADEIRA 22 TUNISIA
contents 22 MADEIRA
FEATURES 08 48 hours: Belfast 10 In focus... Northern Lights 12 In focus.... Balearics 14 In focus... Switzerland 18 Christmas Markets From Amsterdam to Zagreb
22 In focus... Madeira
26 Tunisia Winter sun’s within easy reach
30 In focus... River Cruising
NEWS 04 General News
14 SWITZERLAND 26 TUNISIA
REGULARS 25 In Person – VisitEngland 34 Agents Section
TRAVEL AGENTS CHOICE AWARDS 2012
34 How to vote (and win!) in the 2012 Travel Agents Choice Awards
Steve Hartridge, Editor
Publishing Director/Managing Editor: Alan Orbell • Account Manager: Alex Rogers • Group Editor: Jo Austin • Editor: Steve Hartridge • Journalists: Andy Hoskins, Julie Baxter & Laura Gelder • Creative Director: Matt Bonner • Art Director: Dan Franklin • Designer: Tina-Lee McDougall • Production Manager: Clare Hunter • Production & Reprographics Controller: Stephen Hunter • Managing Director: Martin Steady Selling Short Breaks & Holidays is published by: BMI Publishing, Suffolk House, George Street, Croydon, Surrey CR9 1SR, UK • T: 020 8649 7233 F: 020 8649 7234 E:
enquiries@bmipublishing.co.uk • Whilst every effort is made to ensure accuracy, BMI Publishing cannot be held responsible for any errors or omissions ©BMI Publishing 2012. Some images ©
Istockphoto.com and
Bigstockphoto.com. Cover image courtesy of:
www.istockphoto.com
www.sellinglonghaul.com • September/October 2012 3
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