INSIDE THIS


WEEK Contents


NEWS Hot Stories


Trade rebuts ‘don’t book’ scare stories; Some firms revive advert campaigns as... ...others unveil new-look promotions Munro to leave Barrhead after 28 years; Amsterdam tax angers cruise operators


WIN!


Round-up Tui profits up; Pimentel at Clia; Belmond 08 Travel Weekly to raise £30k for charity


10


A place at one of the UK’s top music events with Gold Medal’s Get Me To The Brits page 36


Face to Face


John Dixon, Prestige Holidays Talk Back


Flight consolidation; Cook; Tui; Tipto


NEWS YOU CAN USE Product Contiki, Lata show, Costsaver


12 17 04 21


Cruise Royal Caribbean, Uniworld, A-Rosa 23 Operator Prestige, Crystal, Shearings


24


FRONTLINE Comment Giles Hawke, Cosmos/Avalon 28


Cover Stars 2019


See next year’s Cover Stars in Miami and on Norwegian Sky


Day in the Life Kyle Griffith, Universal Mystery Shopper Bluewater, Dartford


TRAVEL WEEKLY CHRISTMAS CRACKERS Photos from our Liverpool, Leeds, Newcastle and Belfast events page 38


DESTINATIONS


Trends Age Groups: Key trends for year ahead 46 What’s Hot in 2019: Six of the best


55


BUSINESS Travel Weekly Business Breakfast


Johan Lundgren on easyJet’s plans for tour operation, rewards and emissions


20 December 2018travelweekly.co.uk3


34 44


Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year from all of us at Travel Weekly


We won’t be publishing a print edition next week but look out for our first issue of 2019 on January 3. In the meantime, check out travelweekly.co.uk for the latest news over the festive period.


31


A NOTE FROM THE EDITOR Let’s unwrap Brexit clarity T


“No deal warning: don’t go on holiday after March 29.” The report risked blowing two-and-a-half-years of


attempts to reassure consumers they can book post-Brexit holidays with confidence – and it came from a government leak (page 4).


It shouldn’t be a surprise that worst-case scenarios in the


event of no-deal are being considered. But leaking scare stories of potential “chaos at airports”, advice to consumers not to book, and the inevitable impact that would have on the trade, serves merely to drag the industry into the pantomime that Brexit has become. Transport secretary Chris Grayling wrote to “reassure” the


industry, noting “the UK and EU have made clear their desire to ensure flights continue”, but that was hardly the rebuttal required. Downing Street insisted the report was “categori- cally untrue”, but few will be convinced by that either. Fortunately, industry leaders with important contacts not just in Westminster but in Brussels have risen above it all. EasyJet, Tui, BA-owner IAG, Abta, Clia and others insist they have confidence beyond March next year. As Travel Weekly has previously reported, EU officials


have acknowledged that laws that ground air traffic would not be “blindly enforced” in the event of no-deal, with “parachute” arrangements likely to be introduced. We can’t rule out no-deal, and like every


industry it is prudent for travel to plan for the worst-case. But the absence of support for such an outcome in Parliament makes it less likely than several alternatives. Having taken its turn as a political football


this week, let’s hope the travel industry has some clarity in January.


he worst fears of all in travel were confirmed at the weekend by The Sunday Times’ front-page headline:


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PICTURES: SHUTTERSTOCK; STEVE HOCKSTEIN; PETER BROWN; STEVE DUNLOP


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