NEWS ROUND-UP IN THE PICTURE: Tough Mudder
A group of travel industry ‘Tough Mudders’ raised more than £10,000 for water aid charity Just a Drop by taking part in the gruelling endurance challenge. Team members representing a range of agencies,
operators and suppliers braved fire, ice and electric shocks, with the contingent from Ocean Holidays alone raising nearly £5,000 toward the £10,000 target to fund a borehole project in Nsunka village in Zambia. One team member, Travel Weekly managing
director Stuart Parish, completed the course as the second in his ‘Magnificent Seven’ physical challenges this year for Just a Drop. To donate, visit:
justgiving.com/teams/traveltoughmudders or
justgiving.com/BigStuMag7
Club Med seeks new agent partners selling long-haul
Lucy Huxley
lucy.huxley@
travelweekly.co.uk
Worldwide ski and summer resort operator Club Med is searching for new agent partners who specialise in long-haul destinations.
The operator said it was
responding to the market shift away from some short and mid- haul destinations, such as Turkey, in light of recent terrorist attacks. UK managing director Estelle
Giraudeau said the company’s direct-sell long-haul destinations were performing well, but trade sales were “completely under-weighted”. “Our summer short-haul business is struggling, mainly because of Turkey,” she said. “Portugal and France are booming, but after that it’s our long-haul resorts that are doing well, such as the Caribbean, Mauritius and the Maldives. “Our long-haul resorts have
always sold well through direct channels, but now we need to find
“We need to find niche trade partners to sell long-haul summer holidays to families”
long-haul in a way they weren’t before and the destinations are changing to appeal to families. “The Maldives has completely
GIRAUDEAU: ‘Long-haul markets have always sold well direct’
agent partners with experience in selling long-haul destinations to families.” Giraudeau said trade sales
represented only 30% of Club Med’s long-haul business. “It’s way higher for short-haul,”
she said. “We need to educate agents to reassure their customers that short-haul isn’t necessarily cheaper than long-haul.” She added: “We are seeing a
really interesting phenomenon of families quite happy to travel
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travelweekly.co.uk 12 May 2016
repositioned itself from a couples’ paradise to offering full packages of kids’ activities, so now we need to find niche trade partners, like we have with ski, to sell long-haul summer holidays to families, who are able to overcome misperceptions about price, language and safety.” Giraudeau said Club Med’s
Turkey business was down 40% year-on-year, but doing better than the overall market to Turkey, which she said was 50% down. She said agents could pitch Club Med’s Morocco resort as a good alternative to Turkey and that the operator was looking at teaming up with the tourist board to promote it.
Voice of the Ocean agents prepare for final at conference
Three budding agent performers have been selected as the finalists in Princess Cruises’ Voice of the Ocean competition. Vickie Jones of Thomas Cook
in Chester, James Grant of Love to Travel in North Lanarkshire and Katie George of Thomson in Cardiff were picked as the trio for the final. Each agent has been given a
mentor: Jones has Clia director Andy Harmer, Grant has Travel Weekly editor-in-chief Lucy Huxley and George has Princess Cruises UK boss Tony Roberts. The trio will perform at the Clia
Conference next week as part of the evening entertainment and delegates will be asked to vote for the winner, who will bag a seven-night Scandinavia cruise for two on Emerald Princess. The two runners-up will each win a pair of
VIP V Festival camping tickets. › Adam Goldstein, page 12
JAMES! VOTE
COMMENT: “Abta members have an obligation to keep customers informed” Nikki White, page 34
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