NEWS ROUND-UP IN THE PICTURE: Royal approval


The Duke and Duchess of Sussex visited a charity supported by the Intrepid Group’s charity arm while on a three-day trip to Morocco. Harry and Meghan saw the work of Education For All,


to which the Intrepid Foundation has given $150,000, as they visited classrooms in the mountain village of Asni. e cari srs  irs acrss fie sae


boarding houses, each managed by local house ‘mothers’. It aims to combat Morocco’s 83% female illiteracy rate and has 50 girls enrolled in university. Intrepid Travel will donate £50 to Education


For All for every booking of its Morocco: Women’s Expedition tour from now until International Women’s Day on March 8.


Kuoni ‘open’ to new shops and operator acquisitions


Juliet Dennis juliet.dennis@travelweekly.co.uk


Kuoni is considering three or four further concessions in John Lewis stores and has not completely ruled out further high street shops.


The operator is also hopeful it


will acquire another destination specialist this year, four months on from buying tour operator Journey Latin America (JLA). Speaking at the launch


of Kuoni’s The Worldwide Travel Report 2019 (panel, right), chief executive Derek Jones said the operator’s 49-strong shop network was now broadly “the size we want it to be” but added: “There are three or four live opportunities we are considering with John Lewis & Partners at the moment. “It’s the same with the high


street. We would continue to refresh [the network] if a great opportunity comes up for additional stores. “We have no ambitions


to broadly grow, but we will DEREK JONES: ‘Portfolio stores growing quicker.’ Inset: travel report


“If a great opportunity comes up for more stores…we will consider them if they are in the right locations”


consider them if they are in the right locations. Our portfolio of partner stores is growing quicker.” Kuoni has just opened its latest John Lewis concession in the intu Trafford Centre in Manchester, and also plans to revamp the interior


8travelweekly.co.uk28 February 2019


of more than 10 stores this year, a ece ter it opene its first i street store. Meanwhile, Jones said the


success of the acquisition of JLA  ien uoni te confience and appetite” to pursue other opportunities. He said: “We remain open to opportunities and hopefully this year we will be able to add to the list and have a bigger distribution portfolio.” Kuoni stores are already selling


JLA and sales are going from “strength to strength”, he added.


KUONI WORLDWIDE TRAVEL REPORT 2019


Kuoni predicts 2019 will be the “year of the long-haul trip”, with its sales to farther afield destinations up 4% year on year. Bookings for short-haul


destinations, which make up a smaller proportion of the operator’s portfolio, are “slightly down”. Nervousness about Brexit


remains one of the biggest conversations when customers book a holiday, it said. Kuoni’s Worldwide Travel


Report 2019 features its 25 top- performing destinations for this year. The top 10 are dominated by long-haul destinations. The Maldives (pictured) tops


the list, for the 16th year running, ahead of Sri Lanka and Thailand. As with last year, Italy is the


only European destination in the top 10, ranking seventh. Greece is the next best-selling short-haul destination for Kuoni, listed at 23rd this year, compared with 17th last year and 25th in 2017.


PICTURES: SHUTTERSTOCK; STEVE DUNLOP


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