OPERATOR NEWS YOU CAN USE


gents on fam to Bulgaria


seeing Bulgaria as an alternative to Tunisia, which is subject to Foreign & Commonwealth Office advice “against all but essential travel”. A new flight from Liverpool and


an extra flight from Newcastle are being offered for summer 2017, both to Bourgas in Bulgaria. Rand also insisted Thomas


Cook’s decision to stop selling the operator last November to focus on its own in-house products had not led to a fall in sales. “Independent agents have risen


to the occasion and seen this as a real opportunity, because Thomas Cook isn’t selling us. Our trade sales have flourished.” Agents in Scotland, the northeast, Wales and the Midlands


50 YEARS OF BALKAN HOLIDAYS A BRIEF HISTORY


w Opened UK office in 1966. It was state-owned and called Balkan Tourist. Flights were every fortnight and carried 120 passengers


w By the 1970s it was carrying 5,000 a year from Heathrow, Gatwick, Manchester and Glasgow


wWas the first to charter a Boeing 707 from BOAC to a communist country, in 1974. Among those on the inaugural flight was Jeff Mills, editor of Travel News (now Travel Weekly)


w Agents, multiples and independents were key to establishing the operator in the UK


w At one memorable brochure launch, actor John Inman played customers asking questions about eastern bloc holidays to Balkan sales manager Mike Walsh, posing as a travel agent


are particularly strong sellers of Balkan Holidays, he added. A seven-night, all-inclusive


holiday at Fiesta Beach Hotel in Sunny Beach starts at £573 for


travel on July 16 this year. balkanholiday.co.uk


BALKAN FAM: Chris Rand (second left)


with agents in Sunny Beach


w The operator began a winter ski programme in the 1970s and in the 1980s expanded further to the former Yugoslavia, Turkey, Romania, Cyprus and, briefly, Cuba


w In 1999 Balkan was sold to private owners.


9 June 2016 travelweekly.co.uk 23


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