this season
ONE ON ONE
OPERATOR NEWS
Intrepid 24/7 agent opening hours
Melissa Tilling MANAGING DIRECTOR
FUNWAY HOLIDAYS
If it’s not broke With the support of our travel agent partners and suppliers, the opportunity ahead of us to build sales on our success for the US, Mexico and the Caribbean is immense — these are great destinations and the market demand is there for us to continue our substantial growth. We just have to remain faithful to our core values.
Get personal Our 500 Club of travel agents is a great example of how we get up close with our partners, supporting them and creating purposeful win-win relationships to grow our mutual business. Identifying needs, off ering support and investment, agreeing meaningful targets, and responding to opportunities are some of the key factors that have meant the 500 Club has been hugely successful since its inception last year.
Agents rock We believe the holiday begins the moment a customer picks up the phone to an agent or walks into a travel agency. We continue to invest in activities that reward and develop our travel agent partners; 2017 will see us run the largest amount of FAM trips we’ve ever run in a year. Our MoneyCard loyalty scheme now has over 6,000 members and we have recently introduced a new £100 reward. Finally, Funway Holidays will celebrate its 25th birthday in 2018 and there will be plenty of events to mark the occasion.
funway4agents.co.uk
Adventure tour operator Intrepid Group has extended its business hours to 24 hours a day, seven days a week. This comes in response to an increase in out-of-hours enquiries from agents, particularly as business grew 43% year-on-year (May to May) for the Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) region. Evening and weekend calls will be connected to Intrepid’s offi ces in North America and Australia, enabling agents to access information on trips at any time of the day or night.
Andrew Turner, head of industry
sales, EMEA, said: “We appreciate that an increasing number of agents are working fl exible hours in order to suit the needs of their clients and we want to make sure that we’re available to help them wherever they may need it and provide as much information as possible. We recognise that clients can oſt en want information instantly, and we want to ensure it’s easier than ever for agents to speak to a member of our team.”
intrepidtravel.com
“An increasing number of agents are working flexible hours in order to suit the needs of their clients and we want to make sure we’re available”
MEMBERS UPDATE
HOLLAND AMERICA LINE has received approval to sail to Cuba for the first time in December, becoming Carnival Corporation’s third cruise line to do so. The cruises will debut on 22 December, sailing from Fort Lauderdale in Florida to ports in Havana and Cienfuegos.
hollandamerica.com
ARENA TRAVEL is rebranding Diamond Rail Holidays, to operate as Arena Rail Holidays, following the acquisition of its River Cruise Line and Diamond Rail Holidays brands earlier this year. Arena Rail Holidays launched at the end of June.
arenatravel.com
MSC CRUISES has plans to launch four new ‘World Class’ ships, which will become the world’s largest cruise ships with a maximum passenger capacity of 6,850. The four vessels, which will be unveiled in 2022 and 2024, will feature 2,760 cabins.
msccruises.co.uk
countrybycountry.com | ABTA Magazine 19
ITC LUXURY TRAVEL has changed its name to Inspiring Travel Company. A new strapline, ‘Experts in the Extraordinary’, will be used across ITC Travel Group’s portfolio. inspiringtravel
company.co.uk
IMAGE: GETTY
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