The United Kingdom’s early response (or lack of) to Covid-19 is unlikely to damage its reputation as a holiday destination in the medium to long term, says Australian-based Carolyn Childs, chief executive officer of My Travel Experience.

‘The UK had already done quite a bit of damage to its brand around the handling of Brexit,’ said Childs as part of the ongoing Keeping the Dream Alive series of webinars. ‘Visit Britain had tried to minimise that and I

Exotic Holidays is promoting Fez Tours for Turkey in 2021 and offering 10% discount for bookings made before 30 June, for tours starting 1 January 2021 to 31 December 2021.

Popular tours include an eight-day Aegean Delight Tour, priced from $1589 per person, twin share. It starts and ends in Istanbul and highlights include the battlefields at Gallipoli and Pamukkaale’s white terraces.

Ireland is giving agents and clients the chance to discover the island’s great whiskeys from the comfort of their armchair.

Irish whiskey has undergone a huge renaissance over the last decade. New arrivals from distilleries like Slane, Dingle, Walsh and Echlinville stand beside centuries-old favourites like Bushmills, Jameson, Teeling and Tullamore D.E.W.

IrishWhiskey360° https://irishwhiskey360.com demonstrates the importance of the master distillers, who combine quality Irish ingredients and a variety of cask finishing to create new flavours.

Last year, 17 distilleries on the island of Ireland welcomed more than one million visitors for tours that give a behind-the-scenes insight into their products. While visits are not currently possible, people can still discover the stories of Ireland’s whiskies on websites and through virtual tours.

Jameson 

Teeling Whiskey 

Walsh Whiskey 

Bushmills

www.ireland.com

Agents are invited to join special ANZAC Day reflections on the ANZAC Campaign at Gallipoli, hosted by Robyn Galloway, founder of Innovative Travel and chair of the NZ Turkey Business Council.

Reflecting on the lonely Gallipoli Peninsula, the video will be released on Saturday afternoon at 3pm to coincide with dawn at Gallipoli. It will be released on the Innovative Travel YouTube, Facebook and LinkedIn accounts. 

A number of Ireland’s museums and other attractions have opened their doors virtually.

The Tour Guy has new Interactive Virtual Tours.

Cycling Europe / A Walker’s World is getting product ready for next year, earlier than usual to allow the smooth transition of postponements for this year’s bookings to next year, says the company’s director Jill Grant.

Fez Tours, represented here by Exotic Holidays, has come up with a number of options for clients who are booked but no longer able to travel to Turkey over ANZAC Day. Along with travel restrictions around the world, ANZAC Day events such as the Dawn Service at Gallipoli will be cancelled this year due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Fez Travel GSA, Exotic Holidays, is promoting a nine-day Uzbekistan Classic Tour priced from $2899 per person twin share.

New winter itineraries have been added to the 2020 Russian Travel Centre offering in response to demand, says Innovative Travel.

Eastern Europe continues to be a significant emerging destination for many of The Travel Corporation’s (TTC’s) companies, according to chief executive Brett Tollman.

Coinciding with Valentine’s Day, A Walkers World / Cycle Europe has a package for romantics who can take their partner with them for 50%.

Clients considering a trip to Ireland this year can save 15% on an Irish Legends Tour if booked between 5 and 11 February.

Innovative Travel’s hosted cruise tour to the Oberammergau Passion Play in August 2020 has just a few spaces remaining.

For the biggest and most engaging festivities in Ireland for St Patrick’s Day, clients should head to Dublin or Armagh.

Rail Europe has launched its 2020 training and reward programme called ‘Once Upon a Train’.

Horror loving clients should check out Ireland’s annual Bram Stoker Festival.

The History Channel’s TV show, Vikings is back in December for a concluding season six with Ireland again playing a starring role.

Insight Vacations has made significant changes to its popular Country Roads of Ireland itinerary for 2020 – including operating it right through the year.

Known traditionally as an Asian travel specialist, Exotic Holidays is launching the company’s first Europe brochure this month.

A Walker’s World has a new centre-based walk in Italy’s Lake Como region.

DriveAway is set for another record year of double digit growth from New Zealand travel agents, says the company’s national industry sales manager, Nathan Baber.

Adventure World Travel has announced the launch of a tailormade Scandinavia, Russia and the Baltics portfolio. The Scandinavia collection will be the first of the range to be released in late November with Russia and the Baltics available in mid-2020. Adventure World Travel has been preparing the Scandinavia portfolio over the past five months but has brought forward the release due to demand from agents following the recent Bentours collapse. Neil Rodgers, managing director of Adventure World Travel, says AWT made the decision in early 2019 that these countries were a natural progression for the brand. The portfolio will launch with itineraries in Norway, Sweden, Finland, Iceland and Greenland. In addition to Adventure World Travel’s tailormade offering the collection will also showcase small group journey GSAs, such as Explore Worldwide’s boutique Yurt accommodation in Iceland and Natural Habitat’s luxury Greenland basecamp. Good rates in Scandinavia have been leveraged through the strong relationships and buying power of The Travel Corporation. In the ocean expedition category Adventure World Travel will continue its existing exclusive partnership with Lindblad Expeditions – National Geographic plus a new strategic partnership with Hurtigruten.

Special guests of Tourism Ireland returned home this week after eating and drinking their way through Ireland on a six-day familiarisation tour.

A visit to the Black Sea is one of the highlights of a Fez Travel tour that Exotic Holidays is promoting.

Contiki’s 2020 Europe trips feature new design-led hostel and hotel accommodation.

‘A Taste of Croatia and Slovenia’ hosted tours are gaining momentum, Croatia Times Travel’s senior wholesale consultant Ela Patajac told agents at the GTN2019 conference.

The Split to Dubrovnik (or vice versa) Bike & Boat tour has been one of Cycling Europe’s most popular routes, says director Jill Grant.

APT Travel Group (ATG) has launched TravelGlo, targeting strong demand in the three-star market.

Great Train Journeys has a new Al Andalus itinerary in Spain.

The way Northern Ireland has embraced Game of Thrones and capitalised on fan mania around the show is easy to see at Castle Ward in Strangford.

For agents with clients looking for an experience that’s almost off the map, the new floating Arctic Bath Hotel and Spa can now be booked through Off The Map Travel.

Continuing the celebration of 45 years, Exodus Travels is offering agents the chance to win a fully escorted Exodus famil to the region of Mont Blanc in Europe.

Mary McBride’s Bar, in Cushendun, County Antrim reports that about 1000 people a week are now coming through its doors as a direct result of Game of Thrones – and 75% of them buy a drink or something to eat while they are there.

Ballygally Castle Hotel is across the road from the Irish Sea with views over to Scotland. A popular stop on the Causeway Coastal Route, the hotel even has its own (friendly) ghost.

If a single installation has led to the resurgence of Belfast as a tourism destination it is The Titanic Experience, a museum that traces the building, launch, sinking, immediate aftermath and later search for the world’s most famous ship.

Belfast is continuing to establish itself as a ‘new capital’ for tourism in Europe, with recently opened (and soon to open) hotels, and a raft of added attractions. Leading the way in new reasons to visit are some 25 visitor experiences directly linked to the Game of Thrones TV series – including 10 doors marking scenes from the saga, six stained glass installations, and a massive Game of Thrones tapestry. These are all added to the various natural and historical sites used in the show around Northern Ireland, plus the Touring Exhibition which is in the city until 1 September.

Catherine Gray, media visits coordinator with Tourism Northern Ireland, says more is to come. The Linen Mill Studios, in Bainbridge will open a Game of Thrones Studio Tour in the spring of 2020. It will showcase authentic sets, costumes and props from all seasons of the hit series. ‘Our top attractions are the Titanic Museum and the Giant’s Causeway, but Game of Thrones has given us another high profile reason to visit,’ she says. Gray says her message to travel agents is that Northern Ireland can be promoted as a small, compact and easy to reach destination, just two hours drive from Dublin. ‘Belfast has its various locations, like the Cathedral Quarter, Linen Quarter and Titanic Quarter. But just a 20 minute drive from Belfast gets people into the countryside.’

  By Stu Freeman 

New Zealand agents and brokers will be able to get insights of the ‘latest and greatest’ things to see and do in Russia and the surrounding region when one of the destination’s leading experts visits a number of regions later this month.

For the first time, Aim Holidays is offering packages to the Isle of Man TT for next year prior to this year’s event ending.

Biking in Sweden is proving to be popular this year, according to A Walker’s World.

Auckland based Fiona Johnson, Travel Managers Group, will be getting A Taste of Ireland with CIE Tours after winning a competition that has been running in TRAVELinc Memo over the past few weeks.

World Journeys recommends East Africa for clients who enjoy bird watching.

Giving clients tips like how to have an ‘Oktoberfest’ experience without the crowds, and where to find a medieval German town just half an hour from Frankfurt airport will provide travellers with a reason to re-look at the destination, says Michael Kater, managing director of Unique Germany.

Six new members have been added to Ireland’s Blue Book for 2019.

Born to Run Tours offers a new and different way to experience Northern Island’s sights.

World Journeys has savings of 20% on cabin rates for select 2019 departures of the seven-day Barging the Canal du Midi luxury barge cruises.

Former Silver Ferns player and coach, Yvonne Willering will lead Williment’s ‘Liverpool Experience Tour’ in July 2019 which begins in Edinburgh, travels through the north of England and down to Liverpool where the tournament will be held.
Sports tours hosted by well-known Kiwi athletes are at the core of the Williment brand explains product manager Philip Mazey.’Travelling is always a bonding experience for a tour group and particularly for sports

Cruising onboard a traditional sailing vessel and discovering by bike unknown byways and villages, are two of the best ways to explore the Croatian coast and islands of Dalmatia according to A Walker’s World.
The most popular section is between Dubrovnik and Split, two UNESCO World Heritage sites. Ships take around 30 passengers and are 25 to 30 metres, small enough to negotiate the narrow channels and tiny coves.  
Cycling is on little used roads through olive groves, vineyards, and orchards past castle ruins, churches and small hamlets tucked in coves.

Switzerland Tourism is reminding agents who have not yet signed up to the 2018 Switzerland Travel Academy to do so before the end of the year and be in for chance to win one of three prizes valued at $500 each.
The simple e-learning programme equips agents with the necessary information, updates, tools and tips to help them sell and better assist their clients heading to Switzerland.

South Caucasus, encompassing the destinations of Georgia, Armenia and Azerbaijan, is among the new frontiers for New Zealand travellers, agents heard at roadshows around the country last week.
Fez Travel and GSA Exotic Holidays visited a number of centres, culminating in an Auckland presentation at dinner at the Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron on Friday night.
Fez managing director Ekrem Usta says the company is seeing renewed interest in Egypt and Turkey, as well as having continued success in areas such as The Balkans. However, it is also seeing interest in Caucasus – a region that has an increased profile in the company’s 2019 brochure.