NEWS YOU CAN USE Tauck installs team to raise profile among UK agents
Product and supplier news to help you sell more Hollie-Rae Merrick NEWS IN BRIEF
PortAventura to host Cirque du Soleil show Cirque du Soleil will launch new show Amaluna at PortAventura on July 2 to celebrate the resort’s 20th anniversary. The show will run until August 23 and will return each summer until 2020. The performance will be held in the Big Top, which can accommodate 2,600 people.
portaventura.co.uk
Sandals expands dining options at St Lucian resort Sandals is extending its Discovery Dining Programme to the Grande St Lucian Spa & Resort. The Jerk Shack restaurant will open next week, while teppanyaki restaurant Kimonos, sushi bar Soy and Indian restaurant Bombay Club will open by the end of the year.
sandals.co.uk
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US tour and river cruise operator Tauck has appointed its first team dedicated to working with the UK trade. The 90-year-old brand has been selling in the UK for more than 35 years but only recently put together a team – Ray Steward, Emma Taylor and Kathryn Coles – to work with agents. President Jennifer Tombaugh said all six Tauck brands had potential for growth in the UK. She said markets outside the US accounted for 8% of bookings – a proportion she’d like to double in the next few years. “We won’t be the
fastest or quickest to grow, but as the saying goes, slow and steady wins the race,” added Tombaugh. She expected
Jennifer Tombaugh
8%
significant growth to come through the family market, adventure tours and river cruising. “We’re bringing out the Tauck Bridges family brochure in the UK for the first time in 2016,” she
Did you know . . ? We are offering HUGE savings on 2015 travel. With this your clients can enjoy a beachfront room at Sandals Barbados, or be pampered by a Butler at Sandals LaSource Grenada – the options are endless…
Ecuador targets UK as part of new $9m global campaign
Tourism in Ecuador needs to ‘close the circle’ by working more closely with the UK travel trade, according to tourism minister Sandra Naranjo.
Outlining her plans to extend consumer campaigns to more in-depth interaction with the trade, she said: “We need the product to be available. You can
Proportion
of Tauck sales from outside the US
said. “We’ve sold it here before but never actively pushed it out. “In the US, we’ve seen a lot of interest from families in our river cruise programme, so I’m expecting that to also happen in the UK.
“We have 90
years’ experience at what we do and
we want to show it off to UK guests. We believe
river cruising, in particular, will be popular for this market.” Tombaugh described 2015 as a
watch a beautiful advert for Coca-Cola, but if you get to the supermarket and all they sell is Pepsi, that’s what you buy.” Naranjo is visiting the UK ahead
“foundational year”, during which she’d like to slowly build the Tauck name in the UK. In the past year, the operator
has introduced prices in sterling and trained more than 1,700 agents in the Tauck Academy. Tombaugh said both would help
“grow the pie” for Tauck in the UK. The operator has signed deals with Advantage, Thomas Cook and Hays Travel, and Tombaugh said agreements were being sought with other consortia. Agents who would like to be
trained on Tauck’s product range should contact the UK team.
tauck.co.uk
of Ecuador launching a $9 million global campaign. The ministry will continue its
programme of trade webinars, while a UK roadshow will be staged either this year or next. Naranjo said she hoped more
operators would feature Ecuador. The destination is investing in new roads, and in airports in Quito, Salinas and San Cristóbal. Guayaquil’s first boutique
Sandra Naranjo
property, Hotel Del Parque, will open early next year.
25 June 2015 —
travelweekly.co.uk • 17
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