Holiday Village sends out Santa goodie bags for kids
Juliet Dennis
Homeworking firm Holiday Village is spreading Christmas cheer for families booked to visit Santa in Lapland this winter. Group operations manager Karen
Hodgin came up with the idea to put together Santa goodie bags for clients’ children after rescuing a £6,000 Lapland booking. She stepped in after a client
considered cancelling because she was disappointed with the supplier information available ahead of a trip to Rovaniemi in Finnish Lapland. The agent who took the original
booking had left the group but Hodgin was able to help as she had visited the resort. “I told her what to expect, what
the kids should take, where to go once there – I had a long chat with her about it as I’d been there,” she said. “After that she was quite happy to pay the holiday balance.” When the client asked about
what children received prior to departure, it gave Hodgin the idea to put together gifts for Lapland bookings, across all suppliers, helped by Holiday Village care team leader Adele Barnacle. She said: “It made me think
there’s nothing for the kids to make it special in the run-up to the trip.
Holiday Village
care team assistants Alanda Flanders (left) and Millie Jackson put
together the Santa gift bags
My chat with a client made me think there’s nothing for the kids to make it special in the run-up to their trip
“We are now sending out goodie
bags for every booking a couple of days after the e-tickets have gone out. “We put out a little message with
the e-tickets, saying, ‘Don’t forget to look out for something in the post’ with a picture of Santa. “The feedback from our agents
has been amazing.” The homeworking agency has
99 children booked to visit Lapland Twynam takes on MD role with
Travelopia’s education division Former Azamara and Scenic UK boss Richard Twynam has taken up a new role with Travelopia. Twynam said he would become managing director of some of the firm’s education businesses in the new year. In a post on LinkedIn he said: “Pleased to say I have started an exciting new role: managing director for some of Travelopia’s education businesses including Skibound and Travelbound.”
8 16 NOVEMBER 2023
this Christmas and the team has been busy packaging up goodie bags for all of them, including a letter from Father Christmas himself. The first four goodie bags,
which include a colouring pad, pens, chocolates and sweets, went out last week, with the bulk due to be posted later this month. The first Lapland bookings depart on November 24. Hodgin said: “A lot of the
bookings are for children up to 10 years old so I thought this would be ideal, with a letter about the sleigh ride to Lapland and a picture of the elves. For the older children we are putting in extra chocolates. “It’s a token gesture and hopefully will ensure customers return to us.”
Jet2 adds 70,000 seats across Europe for late-summer 2024
Jet2.com and Jet2holidays have added almost 70,000 seats to their late-summer 2024 programme. The extra capacity has been added between late September and early November and spans mainland Spain, the Canary Islands, Balearics, Portugal, Turkey, Croatia and Greece from eight UK airports.
New Celestyal ship Discovery to replace Olympia
Greek island and eastern Mediterranean specialist cruise line Celestyal has acquired a former Carnival Corporation ship. Renamed Celestyal Discovery, the
1,266-passenger vessel will replace Celestyal Olympia and take over its 2024 schedule when it enters service in March after a “multimillion-euro refurbishment programme”. The line said the ship’s new
name “symbolises the company ethos of creating unmissable moments of discovery through connecting people, places and self”. The ship, which was built in 2003
for Carnival Corporation and has sailed under the Aida Cruises brand, will go on sale on December 11. Customers with reservations on
Celestyal Olympia will be moved to sailings on Celestyal Discovery. Celestyal also operates medium-
sized ship Celestyal Journey, which entered service in September. Chief executive Chris
Theophilides said: “Given strong market and business conditions, we are thrilled to have expedited the renewal of our fleet to welcome Celestyal Discovery into the Celestyal family. “Celestyal Discovery joins
Celestyal Journey to undergo an extensive refurbishment programme over the winter period, further signifying our intent to keep delighting our customers.”
Hays Travel to rebrand its tour operating division as Vista
Hays Travel Tour Operator (HTOL) will be rebranded Vista from the end of 2023. The company said the revamped B2B-only operator would provide Hays Travel and its Independence Group agents with a greater product offering and expertise thanks to a dedicated product team. Strategy director Lisa McAuley said: “Vista will support our agents to meet the growing needs of their customers.”
travelweekly.co.uk
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