Anemos Luxury Grand Resort with 4 TUI Awards

TUI company, one of the biggest tourism organizations in the world, honored Anemos Luxury Grand Resort in Chania with 4 TUI Awards: the TUI Holly 2019 Award, the TUI Top Quality 2019 Award, the Family Champion 2019 Award and the TUI Environmental Champion 2019 Award.

The TUI Holly is the highest accolade that can be accorded a TUI Hotel. It stands for everything that makes a TUI holiday perfect: Great attention to detail, superb service and outstanding cuisine. The hotel’s guests are the jury. The TUI Holly is the premium prize for the 100 most popular TUI hotels worldwide.

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Tunisia continues its comeback

#TUNISIA continues its comeback, recording strong growth at the world’s leading tourism group TUI, in particular from the German-speaking markets and France. Moreover, the country is among the destinations with the highest customer satisfaction levels. TUI Blue, TUI Group’s new lifestyle hotel brand, has now opened its first hotel in #Djerba and provides authentic holiday experiences in the island.

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No more Thomson

THE UK’s leading travel company has kicked off its name change campaign to highlight that Thomson is changing to TUI.

A new TV ad debuted during ITV’s flagship Saturday night programme the X Factor last week. The advert showed a man diving into clear crystal blue water; the message was simple, ‘Thomson is changing to TUI.’

The 20 second ad, created by Young and Rubicam, is at the heart of a wide scale communications offensive that will cement the name TUI in the minds of the British public as Thomson’s transition from UK number one to world number one reaches the final stages. The company announced in December 2016 that its summer 2017 marketing campaign ‘moments’ would be the last under the Thomson brand name, paving the way for a full re-brand by the end of the year.

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Saturdays busiest booking day of January

THE first Saturday in the New Year is dubbed “Sunshine Saturday” in the UK. It is the busiest day of the year for holiday bookings in Europe. As a recent survey carried out by the world’s largest travel group TUI Group has shown, January has become the busiest month of the year across Europe for the tour operator, with huge spikes in bookings observed each Saturday in January. 

This year, the busiest day for holiday bookings in the UK was January 7 with more than 27,500 TUI customers in the UK booked their annual holiday. Mediterranean beach holidays remain one of the most popular holiday types among British tourists, some top destinations include the Balearics, Corfu and Rhodes. 

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State of the Art Holiday Bookings at Lakeside

A NEW state of the art Thomson store opened at the end of September providing a new, improved and exciting holiday booking experience at Lakeside. The new Holiday Design Store boasts a touch screen interactive map which offers in-depth information on exotic destinations and videos of resorts and hotels, plus dedicated booking booths with screens to bring holidays to life in the booking process.

It is also home to an Advice Bar with a dedicated self-service computer for customers to access reviews, excursions and visa information, or even book their own holiday – with staff on hand to answer questions, provide expert knowledge and offer a personalised holiday planning service.

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UK travel agents query FCO warnings plan; Tui challenged by terror victims’ families

CONCERNS about Foreign & Commonwealth Office (FCO) plans to introduce a new category of travel advice highlighting the risks of terrorism or crime in destinations not currently subject to warnings have been raised by the Association of British Travel Agents (ABTA).

The FCO will announce the results of a review of its advice to travellers this autumn, following a consultation with industry and consumer groups which ended in April. ABTA fears a change will confuse consumers.

Joanne Roper, FCO director of consular services, told a recent ABTA seminar: ‘We aim to differentiate the types of risk more closely, maybe with a fourth level [of advice] that it is generally safe to travel, but be aware that the risks of crime or the terrorist threat are higher than at home.’

The FCO currently rates the safety of areas on three levels. These are shown on country maps on its website in green (safe but consult the advice), amber (advise against all but essential travel) or red (advise against all travel). Most popular destinations, apart from Tunisia, are presently shown in green.

The new tier would sit between green and amber.

Nikki White, ABTA’s head of destinations and sustainability, said: ‘The existing system is well recognized and works well. What will “You’re able to travel, but there is a heightened risk” relate to? We’ve been given no examples. Where will it leave consumers? It’s quite clear now when advice changes from green to amber. We foresee increased confusion. And what will be the impact on a destination if advice changes after people book and they think “Do I want to go?” ’

The review comes as families of 16 of the 30 British holidaymakers murdered in the beach massacre in Sousse last June questioned the role of Tui and other companies in marketing holidays to Tunisia.

Legal papers submitted on behalf of the families to an inquest into the deaths accuse Tui of ignoring security warnings, ‘enticing’ holidaymakers with cheap offers, and deterring people from cancelling by refusing refunds. They also suggest that updated FCO advice was not mentioned on Tui’s website, in its brochures, or on booking forms. The victims’ families claim Tui offered 40% discounts on Sousse holidays, despite concerns following the terrorist attack at a museum in Tunis in March last year.

At a pre-inquest hearing at the High Court, Tui’s lawyers said the company did not accept claims about its pricing policy or that it was obliged to carry FCO advice on its site.

The full inquest is not expected to begin until January.

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Tui confirms sale of Meon Villas

TUI has confirmed it has sold Meon Villas to #luxury #villa specialist Oliver's Travels.

Meon Villas, part of Tui's Specialist Holidays Group, was closed at the end of October last year after a decision to focus on the hotel villas featured by sister brand Sovereign Holidays. Tui said that the villa operator's assets, including its client and trade database and the Meon name, had been sold for an undisclosed sum. It is likely to retain around 15 of the 80 property contracts which Meon had.

Oliver's Travels has villas and chateaux in Europe and the Caribbean. The acquisition will allow it to increase its villa portfolio in key Mediterranean destinations.

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Thomson scraps Tunisia summer programme

THOMSON has confirmed the cancellation of all of its Tunisian holidays for summer 2016. The operator is offering refunds to people with bookings to the North African country.

Thirty three of parent company Tui Group’s holidaymakers were killed in the beach terrorist attack near Sousse in June last year.

Thomson said: ‘As the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) continues to advise against all but essential travel to #Tunisia, Thomson Airways can confirm the cancellation of further outbound flights from the UK to Tunisia, up to and including October 31. Customers affected by this will be able to change their holiday to any of our destinations currently on sale, without incurring an amendment fee, or receive a full refund.’

The operator is offering a £30 discount if the new holiday departs on or before October 31 provided it is booked by February 29.

The discount will apply regardless of whether the alternative holiday is cheaper or more expensive, the company said.

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Picture Credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/88475677@N00/11399706034">Sidi Bou Said, Tunisia</a> via <a href="http://photopin.com">photopin</a> <a href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/2.0/">(license)

Travel firm TUI sees growth as Cyprus & Canary Isles replace Egypt

TRAVEL group TUI says it is confident of increasing earnings by more than 10 percent this year, as holidays to the Canary Islands and Cyprus replace security-threatened destinations such as Egypt and Tunisia.

TUI’s joint chief executive Peter Long said the company’s growth forecast for the current financial year took into account the costs of disruption in Egypt. ‘We have the ability to absorb this and still be comfortable with the guidance of at least 10 percent growth in earnings,’

Customers were choosing to go to the Canary Islands, Cape Verde, Cyprus, the Caribbean, and Mexico, Long said, instead of Tunisia and Egypt.

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Tui Group pilots 'smart' wristbands for resorts

TUI GROUP has begun trials of a ‘smart’ wristband to help make the guest experience in resort ‘seamless’. The band can be used to access hotel rooms, pay for items around the resort, track spending, and control air conditioning in guest rooms. 

The wristband, which was developed in collaboration with guest technology managed services provider Quadriga, is currently being tested by Tui Nordics at the Blue Village Family Life resort in Turkey. It links up to Tui’s My Holiday app and if judged successful the technology will be rolled out across the group’s markets.

Quadriga is describing the wristband as ‘the world’s first wearable technology dedicated to creating a seamless holiday experience’.

James Cannon, regional director for UK, Ireland, and Nordics, said: ‘The Tui Smartband project not only marks a step change in terms of the guest experience, it also represents a fundamentally new way of addressing the needs of hoteliers and guests.’

Go Holiday editor David Kernek comments: I’m not sure what ‘seamless holiday experience’ means in plain English; it could be that I’ve never had one, but I do recall a visit to a spa, at which one of these ‘smart’ bands was wrapped around my wrist. The first problem was that it kept on falling off. The second became apparent when I saw the bill for my ‘seamless’ spa experience, based on the band’s ability to track my spending. The proposed charge for a pot of tea and a slice of chocolate cake – albeit a large one – was £36.

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Meon Villas to close

MEON VILLAS, part of the TUI holiday group, is to close in October. 

Susan Allan at TUI said: ‘The market for #villaholidays has changed over the years. We have as a result reviewed our business model and taken the decision to no longer operate the Meon Villas programme post October 2015.

In a statement, TUI added: ‘We have seen growth in recent years in the hotel villas we feature within the Sovereign programme and have decided that for the future this is where we wish to focus our efforts.

The villa market has come under pressure from the large-scale growth and popularity of private, peer-to-peer accommodation bookings.

Last summer, villa specialist Villa Parent ceased trading after the collapse of its parent company Air Parade. 

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Picture Credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/52443980@N03/12568415223">villa drimys in puerto del carmen lanzarote 12-11-2012 7-53-053</a> via <a href="http://photopin.com">photopin</a> <a href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0/">(license)