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INSIDE THIS


WEEK Contents


NEWS Hot Stories


2018 holiday demand hits all-time high; Bogus sickness claims ‘may have peaked’ Consumers rate First Choice ad a flop; Cook vows to tackle gender pay gap; Abta calls for delay to Atol changes


WIN!


Round-up Clia speakers; Travel 2; Cruise 118; Collette 08 Norris retires; Tui reopens; Silver awards 10


A place on a fam trip to Mexico with Oasis Hotels page 34


Special Reports AmaWaterways hosts AmaKristina fam 12 Consumers rate travel firms’ TV adverts 16


Talk Back School holidays; P&O/Cunard; Shearings


NEWS YOU CAN USE Product Tui, Virgin Atlantic, Delta


15 04 19


Operator Trafalgar, Wu, Discover Egypt 20 Suppliers RailTourGuide, Affordable Cruise Celebrity, Great Rail, CMV Aviation TAP Air Portugal


23 24 26


FRONTLINE Comment Sharon Munro: Alexa v humans 28


A Day With... Kinver Travel, Staffs Mystery Shopper Taunton, Somerset


DESTINATIONS FRONT COVER


Felicity Ralfs Butterfly Travel; Geoff Pook, Global


Independent Travel; Sonia Miller, Border Travel; and Jamie Loizou, AmaWaterways PHOTO: STEVE DUNLOP


Greece & Cyprus Easy Family Holidays: Stress-free breaks 40 Spa & Wellness: Relax in these retreats 45


Theme Parks & Attractions What’s new? Disney’s latest attractions 50


BUSINESS


Round-up Sharing economy; Heathrow 62 Atol Abta urges scaling back of reforms 64


WHAT


LUCY DID THISWEEK


29 Mar 1


2 3


30 38


Lucy Huxley Editor-in-chief @Lucy_Huxley


Hosted a Travel Weekly Business Breakfast at Google’s King’s Cross offices with new dnata Travel Europe B2B chief John Bevan as guest


Attended a swanky MSC Cruises event at London’s Gherkin to hear how new ship MSC Bellissima will be christened in Southampton


Went with boss Stu Parish for our diphtheria, hepatitis, polio and tetanus jabs ahead of the Clia Asia River Cruise Forum in Vietnam. Ouch!


29 March 2018 travelweekly.co.uk 3


A NOTE FROM THE EDITOR Keep pushing boundaries T


here’s no accounting for taste, so the saying goes, and our exclusive study of consumer opinion on travel’s peaks ads this week proves that conclusively. Despite being ranked worst, First Choice’s ‘Go Mahoosive with the All Inclusive’ rap ad went down a storm in the Huxley household (pages 5 and 16). My kids absolutely loved it, although admittedly they


are younger than the reviewers in our study, conducted by sentiment analysis specialist SoundOut. As soon as it came on the TV they were jigging and


rapping along with the family in the ad, so clearly something about it really resonated with them. I wonder how many mums and dads ended up booking a


First Choice holiday cajoled by their kids’ enthusiasm, even if they found the advert a little hard to watch. Conversely, it was fascinating to see the likes of Great Rail Journeys, P&O Cruises and Shearings rated so well, given the audience we surveyed was under the age of 45. Clearly Joanna Lumley, who does the Great Rail


voiceover, is the goose that keeps on laying the golden eggs for travel firms. Remember the impact her travelogues had on sales for the northern lights, India and Japan? What the SoundOut research did highlight was the risk in trying to be too quirky and contrived. Even teenagers and twentysomethings like being


inspired by the basics of what holidays are all about – relaxation, beautiful scenery and wonderful experiences. But I hope this won’t deter firms from pushing the boundaries. After all, if you’re First Choice, the only thing worse than taking flak is not being talked about at all.


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