NEWS — DIGEST
“Research highlights the vital role agents play in recommending the right cruise” Peter Shanks, page 36
GAZETTEERS.COM POLL RESULT
WHAT MATTERS MOST TO CRUISE CUSTOMERS? 20% Ship 9% Departure port 31% Itinerary 40% Price
Spa expert Bevan says trade is failing to exploit lucrative wellness sector
The UK travel industry is lagging behind the rest of Europe in exploiting the multibillion-pound spa and wellness industry, the managing director of a specialist company has warned. John Bevan, managing director of Spafinder Europe, part of Spafinder Wellness, believes operators and agents do not know enough about the range of spa and wellness product available. “We are not inspiring consumers to think about doing these things and doing them close to home,” he said. “All we talk about is beach and all-inclusive holidays and we don’t open up enough to say there is much more. “There’s a massive choice within this arena, from medical spas to deal with illness or surgery, through to those designed purely to relax, eat well and do things such as yoga and have massages.” Bevan said the global wellnesss tourism industry was expected
to grow by 9% by 2017, compared with 6% for tourism as a whole. Travel Weekly spoke to Bevan on the eve of the launch of the 11th Spafinder Wellness 365 Trends Report 2014, which draws on views and data from tens of thousands of agents, consumers, industry leaders and researchers to predict the biggest trends for the coming year. The forecast is also based on ongoing surveys of 20,000 spa, wellness and beauty providers in the Spa Wellness 365 network. Trends highlighted in this year’s report include floating, aromatherapy and spas that help people deal with death, divorce, illness and job loss. ❯ Download the Spafinder Wellness 365 Trends Report at
spafinder.co.uk/trends2014
Boost your bookings to Russia at London event Operators and agents interested in selling more trips to Russia and eastern Europe should head to the Russian & East European Travel Exchange (Reetex) on February 11-12 at the Royal Lancaster Hotel, London. It will be attended by airlines, hoteliers, tourist boards and ground arrangers from the destinations, including the Russian ministry of tourism and airline Transaero. For details contact
abhi.dighe@travelinvest.co.uk
Carnival picks first winner of ‘a cruise a day’ competition Bryony Lang, of Virgin Holidays, was picked as the first winner of Carnival Cruise Lines’ Win a Cruise a Day incentive. Iain Baillie, head of sales at Carnival Cruise Lines, said: “The more bookings travel agents make, the more chance they have of winning one of the cruises we have to give away in January.” Lang (centre) is pictured with colleague Danielle Field and Luke Smith of Carnival Cruise Lines.
Travel Uni joins forces with rewards website
Training provider Travel Uni has joined forces with
MyBookingRewards.com to provide an integrated agent reward scheme for agents who take the online training. Travel Uni's training partners who already work with MyBookingRewards will now be able to incorporate it into their training modules at Traveluni. com.
The change will allow agents to access training and booking rewards through one login. In addition, agents who log a booking on the MyBookingRewards system will now be able to access relevant training on the Travel Uni site without having to log in again. Two Travel Uni partners – Oman Ministry of Tourism and Nassau Paradise Island – are already offering these benefits. Oman reported £98,000 of
agent-generated bookings within just 24 hours of being live on the reward site. Travel Uni associate
director Sally Oakey said: “There is no doubt rewards incentivise agents to train and this partnership will help motivate our students and build their commitment to training and sales.”
16 January 2014 —
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