p12 TCDirect jan9 7/1/09 18:09 Page 12
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ttglive.com
Virgin kick-starts Travel City
EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW: Virgin Holidays revived the Travel City
The new Travel City Direct brochure has been
Direct brand this week after buying it from the administrators of the
mailed to previous customers and the website –
travelcitydirect.com – is up and running.
XL Leisure Group. Lucy Huxley talks to Virgin boss Amanda Wills
A dedicated group of reservations staff has
been created in Virgin’s Crawley call centre for
V
irgin Holidays will seek to grow the those preferring to book with a person or ask
Travel City Direct programme it questions.
bought following the demise of the Car rental will be available with Dollar Rent
XL Leisure Group by adding capacity A Car and flights will be on scheduled airlines,
for 2010 and extending the brand to new including, of course, Virgin Atlantic.
destinations such as the Caribbean. on the website since it stopped trading are ■Wills revealed that Virgin Holidays had also
Speaking exclusively to TTG about the anything to go by. bought the XL Holidays, XL.com and Kosmar
acquisition (TTG December 19), Virgin Holidays “Our Travel City Direct programme will be Holidays databases in the sale of XL’s assets
managing director Amanda Wills said: “We very similar to how it was before. from administrators.
will stick to our knitting in year one, but there “It won’t be bells and whistles. It will be
is loads of scope to continue growing the two to three-star accommodation, including
programme for next year and we have absolute a lot more houses for parties of people and
plans to do that. essentially just great value for money.”
“We will also look at other destinations. The
Caribbean would be an obvious place to start.” BRAND’S RELAUNCH
Wills said the Travel City Direct brand, which Virgin Holidays marketing director Andrew
Virgin is reviving for holidays departing from Shelton said this was particularly important in
March 1 onwards, would be pitched at the same the current financial downturn.
clientele as it had catered for before. These “The timing [of the relaunch], given the
were consumers on a budget, often travelling in economic climate, couldn’t be better,” he said.
groups or family parties. Wills said it was important to relaunch as
Prices for a 14-night holiday in 2009 will soon as possible while the brand was still fresh
start at £399, the same price point as last year. in the minds of previous customers.
“We did some research and discovered that
FLORIDA SPECIALIST the Travel City Direct image was not tarnished
In its heyday, Travel City Direct carried about from the XL collapse and so decided to bring it
200,000 customers a year to Florida – the back to life straight away. If we’d have waited a
same volume as Virgin Holidays does today. year it would have been gone – forget it.”
Wills said there was less than 10% overlap
between the Travel City Direct database and SUPPLIERS RE-CONTRACTED
Virgin Holidays’ existing customer list. Wills said hotel and group suppliers were also
And she added the acquisition would add happy to be re-contracted.
another 150,000 new customers to the group’s “A lot of them lost a lot of money and
database, bringing incremental business. forward business when XL went down, but
“It’s not going to take anything away from knowing it’s Virgin Holidays behind it now has
Virgin Holidays or the trade,” Wills said. given them the confidence to work with Travel
The revival of Travel City Direct will benefit City Direct again. Besides, in their minds, it
both Orlando and Manchester airport, where was XL that failed, not Travel City Direct.”
Virgin will add capacity this year.
“It’s good news for Orlando, which was expec-
ting a massive downturn, but hopefully Florida
“Travel City was not
is not going to be decimated now,” she said.
tarnished by the XL
PROGRAMME PLANS
collapse so we have
“The revived programme will now say ‘Part of
the Virgin Holidays Family’ on the brochure, but
decided to bring it
other than that not much will change.
back to life at once”
“Why would we change it when existing
customers love it so much – if the comments Amanda Wills (pictured)
12 09.01.2009
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