INSIDE THIS
WEEK Contents
NEWS Hot Stories
Clia acts over cruise port security report; Thomas Cook to close Medhotels; Icelolly to steer customers to local agents; Barbados imposes hotel room tax; Marriott hints at more cruise brands
WIN!
Round-up Attraction World jobs; Sealy joins Exsus 08 PTRs start on Sunday; Elite thanks Albutt 10
Three nights in a five-star Dubai hotel, with Emirates flights, through If Only page 30
Special Reports Collette Conference, Rhode Island Face to Face: Arnold Donald, Carnival
Talk Back Heathrow; BA ‘blunder’; French strikes
NEWS YOU CAN USE Product Trafalgar, Prestige, Latin Routes 19
Operator Emirates, Premier, First Class 20 Cruise Uniworld, Scenic, Celebrity
22
FRONTLINE Comment Steve Dunne: Voice search tips 24
Readers’ Lives Amy Stevens, MagicBreaks 28 Bourne Community Champions Report 34 Mystery Shopper Cambridge
36 DESTINATIONS
FRONT COVER Dawson &
Sanderson agent Katie Gill and her son Jack, with Bourne Leisure’s Faye Flower, Gemma Wilks, Erman Housein and Natasha Peters (seated)
PHOTO: THE BIGGER PICTURE AGENCY
Cruise Ship Reviews: Symphony, Bliss, Horizon 38 Caribbean: 10 reasons to sail in region 45 Danube: River trip through five countries 51
Turkey Only in Turkey: 8 of the best experiences 54
BUSINESS
Round-up Rifai keynote; Kreeger to quit 62 Heathrow Cost pressures; parking fight 63 Abta 2018 Redmond to say ‘embrace AI’ 64
WHAT
LUCY DID THISWEEK
28 Jun 1
2 3
Lucy Huxley Editor-in-chief @Lucy_Huxley
Had meetings with a trade-friendly airline, an ex-CEO about to embark on a new venture and an operator keen to sell via the trade.
Travelled to Cardiff to watch Ed Sheeran in concert at the Millennium Stadium as a guest of Inspiretec.
Took my daughter and her best friend to see The Greatest Showman Sing-A-Long Live (mainly because I wanted to go!)
28 June 2018
travelweekly.co.uk 3
12 14
17 04
A NOTE FROM THE EDITOR Barbados bed tax could bug I
f there’s a sure-fire way to annoy customers, it’s having to tell them that their holiday is going to cost more than the
price they’ve agreed – and already paid. So I really feel for agents with clients booked to travel to Barbados, who are now having to warn them that they are going to face a hastily implemented check-out charge from their hotels that could amount to nearly £200 for a typical 12-night stay (page 6). Good on Sandals for agreeing to absorb the tax, which
comes into play from this Sunday and applies to existing as well as new bookings. But clearly not all hoteliers, operators and Caribbean specialist agents have the resources to do the same. It’s obvious that the new government in Barbados has a huge job to do to make ends meet, and funds have to come from somewhere. But rushing through taxes that hit customers who have the choice to vote with their feet in the future could well end up not delivering the results it is hoping for. Talking of results, it was interesting to see the trade
reaction – or more to the point, the relative lack of one – to England’s positive start to the World Cup. Not long ago, the combination of England progressing in a major competition and a country-wide heatwave would have had the outbound trade sweating on a potentially disastrous summer for sales. It says a lot about the evolution of the
industry and its customers that the sun is shining and the team are moving on without a flood of discount messages as a backdrop.
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