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Falling value of sterling prompts switch to far-flung holidays with long-haul market looking buoyant
JANUARY
Abercrombie & Kent promoted cheetah-spotting and ‘heli-selfies’ from a flight around Brazil’s statue of Christ the Redeemer among its 2019 experience highlights. The operator brought out a new range of 13 slower-paced escorted tours called Immersive Journeys for 2019-20 to destinations in Asia, Russia, Africa, the Middle East and Latin America. Former Premiership footballer Rio Ferdinand kicked off a partnership between ITC Travel Group and coaching specialists Football Escapes to offer holidays based around children’s football courses at resorts in Dubai, the Maldives and Beijing, among others.
FEBRUARY
The Worldwide Travel Report by Kuoni predicted 2019 would be the Year of the Long-Haul Trip. The operator said its long-haul sales were 4% up, and named India, Kenya, Japan, Egypt and Ajman among its ‘rising stars’. Gold Medal and Travel 2
John Barrowman at Tui’s Sensatori Resort in the Dominican Republic
promoted Kerry Gallagher to the new role of marketing director. ITC Travel Group said its luxury bookings were bucking Brexit uncertainty, with sales up 34% for the week ending February 3 compared with the previous year.
MARCH
Gold Medal and Travel 2 said publicity around the 2019 Rugby World Cup and 2020 Olympics was boosting Japan bookings. Sales in January and February to Japan rose 67% year on year, with the operators calling the destination the “long-haul star”, and they strengthened relationships with ground partners to increase their product range beyond Tokyo to include Kyoto, Kanazawa, Sapporo and Niseko. TV star John Barrowman visited Tui’s Sensatori Resort in Punta Cana in the Dominican Republic as part of a tie-up with the operator to feature in its new advertising campaign, The Holiday Feeling, on social media, in-flight magazines and blog posts.
Byodo-In Buddhist temple in Kyoto, Japan
travelweekly.co.uk
APRIL
Former Attraction World head of sales Simon Garrido joined Travelopia as head of trade partnerships to manage trade sales for Hayes & Jarvis, Citalia, Sovereign Luxury Travel and Austravel. If Only also launched its first cruise programme in partnership with 10 cruise lines.
MAY
Cuba Holidays parent The Holiday Place went into administration with 450 customers abroad and 2,500 forward bookings. The UK heatwave and Brexit uncertainty were blamed. Funway Holidays introduced a WhatsApp messaging service to communicate with agents.
JUNE
The Foreign Office lifted its advisory against all but essential travel to Sri Lanka, which had been imposed in April following terrorist attacks in Colombo and elsewhere on the
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