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12/2010
Party issue
KEY FEATURES High Flyers Launching Queen Elizabeth Manchester Pride What customers want Big Weekends
In association with
Double Discount on selected 2011 cruises plus pay in full at the time of booking to receive an additional 5% discount FREE onboard spending money For further details please check www.completecruisesolution.com
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IN THIS ISSUE
Welcome to the latest edition of Shine, the Party issue, which we are delighted to be supporting. As you will know we have cause to celebrate ourselves this year with the launch of two brand new ships to our fleet, Azura back in April and Queen Elizabeth in October, an event which we were delighted to share with many of you and which you can read all about on page 8. I want to begin by thanking you for all your support during our Early Booking Spectacular Campaign. We have seen fantastic sales across all the Complete Cruise Solution brands and you have contributed a lot to this success.
COVER STAR
Phillipa Watts, Travel Money adviser, Selby Page 4 What have you been up to? 6 A word from the Editor 6 Shining Stars 7 Travel Poll 8 Launching Queen Elizabeth 10 Travel at Manchester Pride 12 Eating in 14 High Flyers 16 The Look 23 Green Light with Zoe Fisher 25 Win £50 Love2shop 26 My First with Jane Redshaw 28 Big Weekends at Butlins 31 Horoscopes 32 The Annual Holiday Survey 34 Gadget review with Neil Hardy
We are now heading into the busy post-Christmas campaign, and Complete Cruise Solution sale which started on 1st December and runs until 31st January, and like Harrods there is only one sale a year! The Complete Cruise Solution sale offers you and your customers more value and more choice than ever before, with fantastic benefits and fares available. For P&O Cruises we will have Double Onboard spending money, Double Discount and additional savings for customers who pay in full across a selection of departures. We will also be offering amazing benefits for World Cruises with fares from only £90 per day for a full World Cruise. For Cunard we will have Double Onboard spending money, Double Discount and once again savings for paying in full across a selection of departures, as well as amazing benefits for World Cruises. Over at Princess Cruises it is all about the price, with free balcony upgrades on many European and Mediterranean departures and the possibility to upgrade to a mini suite from a balcony stateroom from as little as £199pp. We will also have fantastic offers for the Caribbean and Hawaii, with the chance to upgrade to a balcony stateroom for £99pp. Grand Princess returns to Southampton for the summer season with a number of fantastic new features including the Vines wine bar, the Rat Pack-themed Crooners bar, the Crown Grill steak and seafood restaurant and a new Wedding Chapel for couples who want to tie the knot on board. I am sure you will agree we have some fantastic benefits and offers available to suit each of your customers, and we are hoping to continue our successful partnership with you over the next few months. Once again, thank you for all of your support during 2010 and we hope to continue working with you in 2011.
Paul Ludlow Senior Sales Manager Complete Cruise Solution
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GOING UP
Kanye West
barometer
VAT Disabled holidays
Royal Weddings – extra day off next year German Christmas markets
Snow days
Harry Potter Train fares
WHAT HAVE YOU BEEN UP TO? 1 2 3
Hell came to Manchester for the second year running on October 1st when our Commercial department, with the help of assorted managers and members of the marketing team, held Hell’s Kitchen II. They worked a 12-hour day cooking haute cuisine for 212 guests and raised more than £21,000 for charity.
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A parade of ghosts, monsters and unholy terrors invaded Keele University last month for The Co-operative Travel Charity Halloween Ball. The spooktacular costumed event on October 30th organised by the Marketing team led by Zoe Fisher, pictured as a zombie schoolgirl, raised more than £2,700 for our charities of 2010 and Staffordshire’s Douglas Macmillan Hospice.
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Ninth time’s the charm for The Co-operative Travel in Northern Ireland, where regional manager Linda Henderson and her team were named Best Multiple Retail Group at the Northern Ireland Travel Awards for an unprecedented ninth time. One more and we’re in double figures.
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The cat and the hat are Vicky Harris and Sarah Green of our Diss branch and they were given their medals for completing the Great North Run in September, a halfmarathon from Newcastle to South Shields, and raising more than £900 for their chosen charities Feline Care and Marie Curie Cancer Care.
Christmas shopping
Light evenings Portugal
Jason Manford The Euro
Scraping ice off the windscreen The X-Factor
National Travel Retailer of the Year at the British Travel Awards? That’s pretty much the best award you can win in the travel industry, and on November 4th The Co-operative Travel won it for the second year in a row. That makes us high street travel agent of 2009 and 2010 – let’s make it a treble. Okay, this is getting weird. Last issue, Jamie Afro Archer was in Shine with the staff of our Gravesend branch at Dartford festival. This issue, The X-Factor star has his arm around Llanelli branch manager Mark Maunders, winner of Pride of Agents at World Travel Market in November. Mark has beaten kidney cancer and raised more than £1,800 for Cancer Research with a 26-mile night walk in September. Congratulations to Mark. Jamie, please stop stalking us…
The hunky guy in the Santa suit is Ryan Thomas, Jason Grimshaw the builder from Coronation Street, and he’s dressed for Christmas on a sunny day because he came along to the It’s A Knockout day held at The Co-operative Academy at Brownhills, organised by Human Resources, to raise funds for charity and to promote The Co-operative 5K Santa Dash held in November.
Lapland
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GOING DOWN
Retail’s Got Talent alright – and some wonderful outfits. Pictured are Talke-Tastic, the dance troupe that you voted into the final of the talent contest that’s been running all year, with judge Louise Tansey of Bourne Leisure, second from right, in a Simon Cowell mask to put contestants under even more pressure at our Bognor heats.
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Send your stories to tom.whiteley@co-operativetravel.coop
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shining
A word from the
Editor
The last time we spoke, in October’s Shine, I was introducing our new format and asking for your feedback. Unfortunately the magazine came out in the same week that we all got the news about our joint venture with Thomas Cook so understandably everyone was a bit preoccupied. Our mission with Shine has always been to create something that’s fun to read, that gives you a break from work and something to smile about as well as keeping you up to date with what’s going on at The Co-operative Travel. Even though this is a time of anticipation and uncertainty for many of us, the Party issue of Shine carries on that tradition. We’ve gone to print at the end of November and you’re reading this a week or so before Christmas, so I can’t claim Shine is up to the minute. For news on the joint venture head to the intranet, which is updated weekly with answers to your questions. But Shine is here as usual because, as we’ve all kept saying through October and November, it’s business as usual. And for those of you reading this out in the branches, December and January will be business as usual as well. Right now you’re gearing up for the post-Christmas rush, in a few days time it’ll be turkey with the trimmings and then the madness begins… So we bring you the Party issue, with Travel staff as the cover stars as always, showing you the highlights of what’s been going on around your business as we approach the end of 2010. Have a great Christmas and a partying New Year!
Tom Whiteley – Editor 6
stars
Every issue we highlight a staff member who’s shone at work, and for the Party issue it’s Susan Talbot-Moon, a senior customer solutions administrator in our Burslem head office. Being in the happiness business, as everyone in the holiday industry is, means walking a fine line. When a customer has saved up all year for a fortnight of luxury and relaxation they’re understandably intolerant when it's not what they were promised. Paul Dyson of Teignmouth, Devon, booked a Nile cruise through one of our homeworkers. But the boat he and his wife chose, which was five-star rated, didn’t meet their expectations. Mr Dyson wrote to our customer solutions team to complain and we swung into action. Susan says: “Within 28 days of getting the letter we’d investigated the boat and agreed that the boat hadn’t met standards. There were no serious problems, there was nothing life-threatening, but when you’re paying thousands of pounds for a once-in-a-lifetime trip you deserve better. “We agreed a compensation payment of £150 each for Mr Dyson and his wife and wrote back to them with that offer.” The customer replied: “In this day and age it makes a most refreshing change for a company to take responsibility for shortcomings without being pressed. “Rest assured that, notwithstanding the minor difficulties we had on our boat on the Nile, this did not detract from a most enjoyable holiday and I would have no hesitation in booking with you again. Mistakes happen from time to time, this is part of life, but what distinguishes good companies from bad is the way they handle those mistakes in order to preserve future custom. My wife and I have been extremely impressed with the way you have gone about this and are delighted with the ultimate outcome.” “It goes to show,” Susan says, “that handling a complaint is as important to the business as selling a holiday in the first place. It’s really nice when you get something like that because it shows that even though what we do is all behind the scenes it’s still valuable. It makes you feel like you’re doing the right thing.”
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Travel poll support we “getThefromamazing Sarah Imrie ”
Last issue we asked: What is the one thing you like most about selling cruises with Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines?
“ The fabulous ships!” The security “ of knowing that
They have something “ for everyone, young and old,
Their absolutely “fantastic ships ”
they’ll follow through and meet all and their cruises are The incentives our customer’s exciting to be part of expectations after That I know we make my customers will be coming a sale home happy customers Oasis and Allure are the most advanced ships on the water and a big draw for cruisers and new to cruise alike
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This issue’s Travel Poll question: What do you like most about selling Complete Cruise Solution’s products? Visit Travel Poll, on the Quick Links section of the intranet, to answer.
NEW
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Full terms and conditions apply; see website for details. 1. Red Sea Hotels accommodation only 2. The full deposit is £110 per person in the event of cancellation, the full deposit must be paid. ATOL protected 9749. © Red Sea Holidays Ltd 2010.
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QE NEW Setting sail on Cunard’s
Glamour isn’t what it used to be. Today’s idea of glamour – the Sex In The City girls shopping their way around Abu Dhabi – pales in comparison to Hollywood’s Golden Age, when Ginger and Fred swept across the dancefloor. Glamour was glamour back in the 1930s, when everyone was in black-and-white, men dressed to impress, women dressed to kill and neither ever had a hair out of place. Want to take a trip back to those elegant days? Look no further than Southampton and its newest regular visitor, the all-new Queen Elizabeth launched on October 11th. The Queen herself, only 12 years old when her mother launched the first one in 1938, was there to name the ship. And so was Samantha Marsden, assistant manager of The Co-operative Travel in Crosspool and cruise co-ordinator for South Yorkshire, invited to spend a night on the ship over its launch weekend. 8
She says: “You walk onboard, there’s a string quartet playing, you enter this lobby that’s three floors high and all art deco, beautiful-looking, with this big picture of the ship at the head of this grand staircase… it’s amazing. I probably shouldn’t say this but it’s just like when Leonardo goes for dinner in Titanic!” It’s a very accurate comparison. The ship is a traditional one, offering all the comfort and five-star facilities customers associate with cruising and leaving out the nightclubs and circus performers. Indeed, it promises White Star Service, named after White Star Liners, proprietors of the ill-fated Titanic, and adopted by Cunard when they bought the fleet as a benchmark of quality.
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“The staff couldn’t do enough for you,” Samantha says. “In the bars you don’t queue for your drinks, you take a table and they bring them over to you which is wonderfully relaxing. At the Britannia Restaurant where we ate I was told if there wasn’t anything on the menu I fancied they’d make something special just to please me.” This attention to detail is central to the Queen Elizabeth experience. This is a ship where tea is still served in the afternoons by staff in white gloves, where the games deck hosts leisurely rounds of quoits and shuffleboard, and where the double-height Queens Room, with cantilevered balconies and an intricately-patterned dance floor, is the nightly home of black tie soirées, themed balls, recitals, and special concerts.
Wherever you go, you’ll be travelling in comfort and style. Samantha says: “The staterooms, no matter what class, are really nice and very spacious. Some of them even have double baths, which on a cruise ship is practically unheard of. Even the inside ones are very roomy which is great for cruisers on a budget.”
“It’s an absolutely beautiful ship from aft to stern, not too big – it holds just over 2,000 passengers – and there’s so much to do and discover, from the library to the Royal Spa to the Royal Court Theatre. There’s memorabilia on there from the previous Queen Elizabeth and the QE2, there’s a Garden Lounge with foliage and a conservatory roof. It’s what everyone imagines cruising to be, and proof that real glamour never goes out of style.”
new Queen Elizabeth
“That old-style glamour makes it a perfect fit with the more mature cruise customer,” Samantha says. “For older customers it definitely has that wow factor.” Dining is booked by stateroom, so customers will begin their evenings in the Queens Grill, the Princess Grill where in good weather you can eat al fresco, or the Britannia. Or eat South American at the Asado, classic Mexican at the Aztec, or Asian cuisine at Jasmine – all within The Lido – or good old fashioned pub food at The Golden Lion. Queen Elizabeth’s maiden voyage begins with the meeting of all three Cunard Queens – Queen Victoria, Queen Mary 2 and Queen Elizabeth – in New York on January 13th. She then makes 52 maiden calls in the Canaries, the Netherlands and Belgium, the Mediterranean, Norway, the Baltic Sea and Russia, the Adriatic and Croatia, New England and Canada, around the British Isles and finishes the year with a Christmas pilgrimage to Israel. 9
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Why we’re trying to be the gay market’s favourite travel agent. Everyone knows The Co-operative Travel is a gay-friendly employer – the Group is in Stonewall’s 2010 Workplace Equality Index – but how gay-friendly are we to our customers? It depends on the branch. While in Brighton staff can probably rattle off the top gay resorts without even thinking not all branches are used to an openly gay clientele. And if you assume that two men want to go and meet ladies in Magaluf when they’re more interested in meeting lads in Mykonos, then you’re not going to make a sale.
What did we find out? LGBT holidaymakers love beach holidays and citybreaks. Their favourite beach destinations are Lesbos, Mykonos, Sitges, Gran Canaria, their favourite European cities are Barcelona, Amsterdam, Paris, and Dublin, and long-haul they’ll fly to New York, Sydney, or San Francisco for a citybreak.
The LGBT – lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender – market is growing every year. There are a million openly gay people in the UK. They’re likely to be more affluent than the rest of the population, and they’re generally adventurous holidaymakers. More than a quarter of that number has been on a long-haul trip in the last year and their top destinations include a few that aren’t in most straight brochures, like Dallas, Philadelphia and Curaçao in the Dutch Antilles. So there’s money being spent, but how do we get our hands on it? To find out, we turned up at Manchester Pride last year. The August festival was sponsored by the Co-operative Group, and our many-coloured brands made a fantastic rainbow in the parade. But the real work was going on at our stand inside Pride where throwing dice – after filling in a survey – could win you a trip to the Mardi Gras in Sydney. There were queues throughout the weekend and by the end of it we had more than a thousand completed surveys.
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One in five gay customers has taken a holiday to visit a Pride festival, one in ten have been on four or more holidays in the last year, and most significantly gay customers prefer to book on the internet. 68 per cent booked online, almost twice the percentage in our Annual Holiday Survey. This year, we were back at Pride in Manchester to get our unfair share of the gay market with a Z-fold card designed to fit in back pockets full of offers put together by Escape for exotic destinations like Kuala Lumpur, Cape Town, and Bejing, or city breaks in Chicago, Las Vegas, and Hong Kong, and a handy list of LGBT carnivals around the world. What next? Watch this space...
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Food
Festive Indulgence
R A S P B E R RY C R E A M C H O C O L AT E B R OW N I E MAKES 10 BROWNIES Ingredients 200g (7oz) butter, plus extra to grease 150g (5oz) each Bournville and dark chocolate, such as Green & Black’s Dark 70%, chopped 4 medium eggs 150g (5oz) light muscovado sugar 125g (4oz) plus 1tbsp self-raising flour, sifted 125g (4oz) curd cheese or cream cheese 2tbsp raspberry jam
Method 1 Preheat oven to 200°C (180°C fan) mark 6. Grease and line a 23cm (9in) square tin with greaseproof paper. Put chocolates and butter into a bowl over a pan of simmering water, stirring to combine. When they’re melted, take off the heat and set aside to cool. 2 In a bowl, whisk three of the eggs and all but 1tsp of the sugar together with an electric hand whisk until thick and moussey. Fold in the cooled chocolate mixture and all but the 1tbsp of the flour, then pour into the prepared tin. 3 Put cheese into a bowl with remaining egg and the 1tsp sugar and the 1tbsp flour. Mix well to combine. 4 Place dollops of the cheese mixture randomly over the surface, then top each with a teaspoonful of the raspberry jam. Use a skewer to marble the cheese, jam and brownie mixture together. Bake for 25-30min. Remove from the oven and leave to cool in the tin for 10min, then lift out the brownie and cool completely on a rack. Cut into wedges and serve with a dollop of crème fraîche.
Caroline Mauritis, assistant branch manager at The Co-operative Travel in Gillingham, cooked up this recipe as a winter warmer for herself and her husband. She says: “25 minutes to prepare? More like 40 minutes without an electric whisk, but once it was in the oven it made my house smell amazingly yummy, like a bakery. Half an hour in my oven was maybe a little too long because the base of the brownie had lost its moisture, but it was still very fluffy and chocolatey. I wasn’t sure how the cheese or the raspberry would work, but they gave it that creaminess and a real tang, very different from the usual nuts. I’d definitely cook them again, though mu husband requested chocolate custard next time.” 12
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Allure of the Seas
Launches November 2010 Royal Caribbean International, known for building the largest cruise ships in the world and introducing never before seen innovations like the Royal Promenade of shop and dining venues, rock walls, ice skating rinks and surf simulators, launches Allure of the Seas with a refreshing new array of features and onboard amenities. Our newest and most incredible ship class yet, Oasis class offers an unrivalled cruise experience with truly revolutionary innovations and seven groundbreaking ‘neighbourhoods’. In addition to these seven signature neighbourhood designs like Central Park and the Coney Island-style Boardwalk, complete with a hand-carved carousel and an AquaTheater, Allure of the Seas’ distinct personality takes centre stage presenting new features such as: • New entertainment offerings including the launch of a partnership with DreamWorks Animation and the Broadway hit, Chicago: The Musical • 26 dining options including the first Starbucks at sea, a new spin on fine dining at 150 Central Park conceptualized by The Culinary Institute of America alumna Molly Brandt, who was recently named Chef de Cuisine as the winner of the “Allure of the Seas Culinary Challenge,” as well as the Samba Grill Brazilian steakhouse, Rita’s Cantina Mexican cuisine and The Boardwalk Dog House • A wide array of retail options including a BRITTO Gallery fashioned by pop artist Romero Britto and GUESS Accessory boutique • Innovative technology features such as a 3-D movie theater, iPod docks in suites, self service kiosks and digital way finding signage for guests Launched November 2010, a holiday onboard Allure of the Seas is the perfect choice for all the family. Sailing 2 fantastic 7 night Caribbean Itineraries, if a week isn’t long enough for your customers why not combine both of them to do a 14 night consecutive cruise or even add on a few days either side and make the most of your stay in Fort Lauderdale. Prices start from just £1229pp*.
*Price is based on Allure of the Seas 13 Feb 11, 9 night Western Caribbean fly/cruise departing London Gatwick. Prices are subject to increase/withdrawal at any time and subject to availability. All bookings are bound by the terms and conditions as featured in the current edition of the Royal Caribbean International brochure relvant to the travel period.
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High Flyers How the graduates of our management training programme got their wings 14
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Karen Gardiner of CTM
Suzanne Brunt of The Co-operative Personal Travel Advisors
It’s tough at the top, so they say, but it’s even tougher at the bottom and it’s no picnic being in the middle either. A middle manager has to deal with all the unreasonable requests their bosses make and all the moaning of their staff, trying to keep everyone happy and get the job done at the same time. It isn’t easy – especially if you’re new to the position, and not long ago you were one of those moaners you’re now trying to motivate. The Co-operative Travel has a proud record of promoting from within, but that causes its own problems.There’s still a journey from spotting people with potential and equipping them to fulfil that potential. It doesn’t matter how much of a people person you are, it’s never easy to tell a colleague who used to be on the same level as you that they need to pull their socks up. That’s why, in September last year, we began our High Flyers programme – to train people who’d been promoted to management roles how to be managers. How to be leaders, how to solve problems, how to deal with the pace of change in the fast-moving travel industry, how to juggle day-to-day issues and the management of long-term projects that are crucial in taking us forward, and making sure you’re not neglecting your own personal development in the middle of all that. Managers from across the business took part in High Flyers’ first year and 25 graduated with an Institute of Leadership and Marketing Level Three Certificate this summer. Level Two isn’t the end of the road, either. The Level Three programme, which gives managers projects around the business and allows them to work up to a foundation degree, has now begun – and currently taxiing to the end of the runway are 40 managers on the 2010 High Flyers programme, which began in September. Karen Gardiner, a team manager at Co-operative Travel Management in Stafford, has passed the first year of High Flyers and began Level Three in September. She says: “The workshops
are incredibly interactive – within minutes of going in, I was downhill skiing on the Wii Fit, blindfolded, with someone else giving me instructions. It’s exhilarating and it teaches you to make that leap of faith and trust. “There’s also a lot of study at home, reading about different management situations and going through a great deal of management theory, and you’re encouraged to read the Financial Times to get to grips with the business world and make sense of what you’re learning. Plus you have two written assignments done in full academic style to complete.” “It’s been fantastic to meet people from around Travel, because we can be set apart at CTM but now I know lots of other managers from Retail, Freedom, Future and more.” “And I’ve definitely put the things I’ve learned into practice. You learn how to plan going forward. You use those tools to see what you think people are up to, what jobs and projects will fit their skills, and to take a step back and try to see the whole picture.” Business Development Manager Suzanne Brunt of The Co-operative Personal Travel Advisers – formerly Future Travel – is a Level Two graduate. She says: “I was nominated for High Flyers because I was leading a small team without having had any real training for the role. My one-liner is everybody thinks they’re good at their job or they wouldn’t be doing it, however High Flyers taught me ways of working differently and made me more efficient and productive. “I’m able to see from other people’s perspective which has helped me manage situations a lot better. It’s made me take notice of what goes on around me. I changed from Freedom to Future in March but the skills learned are equally applicable to both jobs, it’s a toolbox you can take with you wherever you go.”
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The
Look
( party picks from the high street ) The party season is here, and it’s Travel Money’s turn to get glammed up in their glad rags for Christmas and New Year. Jodie Brown of Acomb, Paula McPhail of Gateshead, and Phillipa Watts of Selby – all Travel Money advisers – star in our flagship fashion feature.
Phillipa Watts Travel Money Advisor wears: Dress Topshop Tights M&S Jewellery and Headband Topshop 16
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Fashion sponsored by
Jodie Brown Travel Money Advisor wears: Mini Dress Vicky Martin Sequined Leggings Vicky Martin Gloves Reiss 17
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Fashion sponsored by
Paula McPhail Travel Money Advisor wears: Dress M&S Jewellery M&S 18
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Phillipa Watts Travel Money Advisor wears: Dress Vicky Martin Tights M&S Jewellery H&M 19
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Fashion sponsored by
Paula McPhail Travel Money Advisor wears: Dress M&S Shrug M&S 20
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Jodie Brown Travel Money Advisor wears: Jacket Topshop Strapless Dress Reiss 21
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NEW Stay & Cruise Holidays We’ve got together with Norwegian Cruise Line to create a unique concept in sunshine holidays allowing your customers to have a resort holiday combined with a luxurious 4* cruise. They can choose either spectacular Barcelona, family fun in PortAventura, scenic Italian Lakes or historic Venice.
EXCLUSIVE
Barcelona Stay & Mediterranean Cruise
Venice Stay & Aegean Sea Cruise
Norwegian Epic 7th October 2011, 9 nights Fly UK/Barcelona (4* Hotel in Barcelona for a 2 night stay) From only Sail Barcelona, Livorno, Civitavecchia, per person Naples, Palma, Barcelona/Fly UK
£699
Norwegian Jade 19th May 2011, 9 nights Fly UK/Venice (4* Hotel in Venice for a 2 night stay) Sail Venice, Dubrovnik, From only Piraeus, Izmir, Split, Venice/Fly UK
PortAventura Stay & Mediterranean Cruise
Beach Stay & Mediterranean Cruise
Italian Lakes Stay & Greek Islands Cruise
Norwegian Epic 6th October 2011, 10 nights Fly UK/Barcelona (4* Hotel in PortAventura for a 3 night stay) Sail Barcelona, From only Livorno, Civitavecchia, Naples, Palma, per person Barcelona/Fly UK
Norwegian Epic 4th October 2011, 12 nights Fly UK/Barcelona (4* Hotel in Sitges for a 5 night stay) Sail Barcelona, From only Livorno, Civitavecchia, Naples, Palma, per person Barcelona/Fly UK
Norwegian Jade 7th May 2011, 14 nights Fly UK/Verona (4* Hotel in Lake Garda for a 7 night stay) From only Sail Venice, Corfu, Santorini, Mykonos, per person Katakolon, Venice/Fly UK
$100 per cabin FREE on board spending money Book before 31/12/10
£929
£1,029
£899
per person
£1,249
$100 free on board spending money is per cabin and is available on selected cruises created and confirmed before 31/12/10. Offers are applicable to new bookings only and are subject to availability. Lead in prices are per person based on inside staterooms, based on two persons sharing. Prices are based on London departures. Regional flights available for a supplement. Full booking conditions apply and are available on request. Itinerary could vary on The Norwegian Jade. Please ask your cruise specialist for details. Terms and conditions apply, please ask for details.
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Zoe Fisher gives you the Green Light Making the right ethical travel choices in an era of globalisation isn’t easy. If all holiday flights from Britain were cancelled tomorrow – which hardcore environmentalists would love to see – then an unimaginable wave of bankruptcy and poverty would hit the coast of Spain and Greece would probably be finished as a country. So how do you make an ethical holiday choice? The Co-operative brand undoubtedly includes plenty of green and Travel was the first major high street retailer with an ethical strategy, but when it comes down to sales most of our customers book with Thomas Cook or Tui. How can we use our power in the market to make the travel industry greener?
Promoting sustainable travel is 90 per cent about education. Holidaymakers don’t realise the long-term damage they can do to the life of a small island, so Tui as Thomson have produced guides for their resorts to encourage tourists to experience authentic local culture, to minimise their environmental impact and to spread the economic benefit of their holiday all over, rather than spending all their money in a single resort.
And in April this year Tui, as First Choice this time, launched their first Greener Holidays brochure. It’s only available online but this is a first for a mainstream tour operator, and in both the brochure and the dedicated section on Tui’s website they’re reinforcing that sustainable message, highlighting their hotels across the world that have won Over the last two years we’ve been rewarding suppliers the Travelife award, and helping customers who want to with the Star Awards, voted for by our staff and our make a green choice when booking a break. customers. Among them is the Best Operator for Sustainable Tourism, won in 2008 and 2009 by Tui UK & Nobody knows how much demand there is for ethical and Ireland for their pioneering work. green holidays in the UK because they’ve hardly ever been tried. But as environmental and consumer awareness They’ve been enthusiastic backers of Travelife, an ethical grows, we hope that customers will soon agree with us standard which gives hotels bronze, silver or gold that the only way is ethics. accreditation if they meet standards for water and energy conservation. At the end of last summer, Tui had hit their target by auditing 400 of their top hotels and giving 40 per cent of them – 161 properties – Travelife accreditation. 23
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IN W 0 £5
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Beat the post-Christmas blues by winning one of three £50 Love2shop vouchers in our Complete Cruise Solution competition!
Take part in this quiz for your chance to win! All the answers are famous people who have named Complete Cruise Solution ships. We have provided some helpful hints to help you.
Some Helpful Hints
Q1. Who named Azura?
Q1. This retired English ballerina used to be a Principal Dancer of The Royal Ballet and a Strictly judge.
Q2. Who named Queen Victoria? Q3. Who named Queen Elizabeth?
Q2. This Duchess is, as the Princes’ stepmother, looking forward to a big wedding in April. Q3. This lady has been reigning since February 6th, 1952 and is even more excited about next year’s wedding than Q2.
Q4. Who named Ventura?
Q4. This Prime Suspect has also been a Calendar Girl and has even played Q3.
Q5. Who named Arcadia?
Q5. This Dame isn’t in pantomime – she’s a double Olympic gold medalist who’s been seen Dancing On Ice.
Q6. Who named Oceana?
Q6. The only daughter of Q3, this horse-loving lady competed in the 1976 Olympic Games.
Q7. Who named Artemis?
Q7. This actress has played Q3, but she’s best known for being the wife of manic Torquay hotelier Basil Fawlty.
Q8. Who named Ruby Princess?
Q8. The female half of this couple began her TV career on The Bachelor, then starred on The Bachelorette where she met the man she married on live TV on December 10, 2003.
Q9. Who named Emerald Princess? Q10. Who named QM2?
Q9. This actress loved the Fonz’s younger cousin Chachi in Happy Days and then their own spin-off. Q10. You see her face every time you open your purse or wallet or post a letter, and she’s been played by Q4 and Q7.
Send entries to The Co-operative Travel, Hamil Road, Burslem, Stoke-on-Trent, ST6 1AJ. All entries to be received by January 31st and the three winners will be chosen by prize draw.
Name
Contact Number
The winner of a ship visit from last issue is Sarah Blair of our Welwyn Garden City branch. Runner-up Carly Triner, of our Congleton branch, gets a bottle of champagne.
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My first...
jane redshaw Shine’s regular feature asking our management team about the firsts in their lives turns to Jane Redshaw, Call Centre Manager for Cumbria Cruises, about her life and her day.
First memory – My first ever babysitting experience with my dad, who has an engineering background. He decided the best way to look after a two-year-old was to tie my push-along trolley to a stake in the garden and for me to push it around in circles for three hours until mum came home! First record – The Osmonds of course – Crazy Horses, Paper Roses, Puppy Love… In my younger days it was every girl’s dream to be swept off their feet by Donny and yes, I’m still waiting. Then I moved on to heavy rock, AC/DC, Black Sabbath, Meatloaf, all listened to while wearing a leather jacket, bell-bottom Falmer jeans, thick black eyeliner and a perm. First job – Retail travel consultant for Ulverston Travel, part of the Barrow Travel Group, when I was 17. No computers back then, just a phone and a brochure. 27 years later I’m still working for the same company. First car – Living in a small village in Cumbria I was desperate to get an escape route to the big city (actually a small town called Ulverston) so aged 16 I got myself a motorbike, the Yamaha RD50. Two years later I moved up to a white Mini Metro, which was the lap of luxury compared to the bike. First major achievement of my career – I was made the manger of our Kendal branch at the age of 22, but the achievement I’m proudest of is a lot more recent. Just 18 months ago I took the reins at Cumbria Cruises and with support from a fantastic team we’ve turned a declining business into one that’s well ahead of its rivals. First impression of The Co-operative Travel – ORANGE! Joking apart, there are lots of processes and lots of people, a different one for every job. Coming from a culture where you were expected to turn your hand to anything I found that difficult to adjust to, and I still believe that my way stands you in good stead because you’re never outfaced by a challenge. First person I saw today – The one who makes my life worthwhile, my ten-year-old son Adam who greeted me with “Aw mum, do I have to get up?” First priority of my working day – To get a strong coffee, then I’m straight into my emails to check yesterday’s sales figures against last year’s and budget. I never take my eyes off our sales, no matter what else is going on, because they’re what it’s all about. First phonecall – One of our key affinity partners, CSMA, called to discuss the action log of marketing activity and what’s being promoted through their magazine, and to discuss future opportunities within the Co-operative Group – they’re already working with Food. First meeting – Being based in Barrow means I waste a lot less time in meetings than most managers – I waste it in conference calls instead. Today I’ve had four, on subjects from trading to Thomas Cook, and I had a quick chat to our new marketing manager Kate who made the trip up from Burslem to discuss the cruise magazine we’re producing in January. First thing I did for fun today – When I get in my first job is to help my little boy with his homework, then it’s cooking, ironing, and everything else that mums do. I suppose that’s fun for me! First thing I’d do if I won the lottery – This is so sad, but the truth is I’d continue as I am now because I love my job, my colleagues and where we’ve got to and after 27 years I don’t think I could just switch off. I guess at some point I’d buy a villa on a Greek island and become Meryl Streep in Mamma Mia!
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70s, 80s, 90s the party never stops at Butlins
Younger readers won’t remember this – or believe it – but in the old days, bed and breakfast used to mean just that. Once guests at a seaside B&B had finished their full Englishes, they were pushed out onto the streets for the day even if it was raining cats and dogs. That’s why Billy Butlin founded his holiday camps in the 1930s, to provide everything you want from a holiday, from accommodation to meals to entertainment. And all these years later, though Glamorous Granny and Knobbly Knees contests are in the dim and distant past, Butlins in Bognor Regis, Minehead and Skegness are still doing the same things today. But instead of doing it for holidays, their Big Weekends get rid of all the obstacles to a good night out. There’s no door charge on the nightclubs, no need for a taxi because everything’s within walking distance, and the buffet means there’s no need to queue for a kebab. And during the day, once you’ve recovered with the help of a full English, there’s no shortage of thrills – climbing walls, driving go-karts, bowling, or just soaking at sub-tropical playground Splash Waterworld. 28
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Kat Lockyer, aged 22, a travel adviser at the Gravesend branch of The Co-operative Travel, is a Big Weekend veteran, with two trips to 90s Reloaded under her belt. She says: “The 90s is my era, it’s when I was a kid, so it’s reliving childhood memories. The partying that goes on is just mad. I went in April last year because me and my mates wanted to get away without going abroad and we just loved it, so we went back again in September for my 21st birthday. “Everyone’s there just to have a good time and talk to everybody else. Sometimes when you’re clubbing people are stand-offish but at the Big Weekend everyone gets on. We hung out with a group of guys from Essex who were a few chalets down and we’ve stayed really good friends. “For my birthday we stayed in a Deluxe Suite, top of the range, which had three bedrooms and a living room. There wasn’t a kitchen, but we’d paid for a dining package so just went to the buffet restaurant which had everything: lasagne, roast dinners, breakfast with a nice fry-up to kill the hangover. It’s your choice whether you stay in traditional holiday apartments or something more exclusive like Bognor’s contemporary Shoreline Hotel, where every room has a flatscreen TV, lounge area, and either king-size or twin beds, there’s an American diner and the afterparty never stops in the hotel bar, or the funky fresh Ocean hotel, with mood lighting in your room, a disco lift, and the Kaleidoscope Bar and Restaurant. But the real choice with Big Weekends is what decade you want it to be. The 1970s, rocking to Alvin Stardust, Slade and The Rubettes? The 1980s, with Midge Ure, Boy George and Nik Kershaw strutting their stuff onstage? The 1990s, with Chesney Hawkes, 911, and Livin’ Joy? Then there’s The Great British Folk Festival, The Great American Soul Book, the Rock & Blues or the Soul Weekenders, and the Skool Reunion weekends which mix acts from every decade to send us all back to our carefree younger days.
“During the day we’d go on the funfair and the beach and chill out ready for the night. You didn’t have to leave the resort if you didn’t want to, there’s a little supermarket and there’s always activities going on. “We dressed up every time, first time in school uniform because that’s the age we all were, and the next time it was Cowboys and Indians, and the last night we had Kat’s 21st T-shirts made with Little Miss characters. I was Little Miss It’s All About Me. “All the main venues at the resort are all part of the weekend, with DJs on until God knows what hour. I saw S Club Party, but with only Bradley, Jo and Paul, and they were really good, though Bradley said things on stage that he would never have said on TV! “It’s a fantastic weekend, like a three-day trip to Ibiza without the flights, and we’ve booked again for March next year.” 29
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Your Angel mission... book Thomas Cook from EMA
WIN TICKETS TO SEE THE HIT SHOW This way to EMA
Book ook Thomas C A. M E from ates d g Bookin 10 27 Dec 20 11 28 Feb 20 Follow EMA’s yellow brick road to success for your chance to win tickets to next year’s hit west end Musical ‘The Wizard of Oz’. Simply book Thomas Cook from EMA for S’11 and the top ten shops with the greatest % increase sales from EMA will each win a VIP day trip to London to see the show! All bookings made between 27 Dec 2010 through to 28 Feb 2011 will qualify.
eastmidlandsairport.com eastmidlandsairport.com/agents
To be in with a chance of winning this incentive you must register your shop by emailing: itsallaboutdorothy@manairport.co.uk Good Luck and remember ‘there’s no place like EMA!’
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Don’t take this the wrong way, but it might be an idea to stay away from other people for the next couple of months. First of all, apparently your social life is going to suffer because “Mars will do a bit of a number on you in 2011, making you a bit more antisocial than usual, not to mention cranky.” Second, you’re apparently going to be good at seeing what’s going on or, as one website put it, you’ll have a “greater moral energy to apprehend the circumstances with an unquestionable sense of smell,” which won’t be good when you’re sat behind the stinker on the bus into town.
Apparently Aquarians are “known as likable, friendly characters that others admire.” The bad news is that “the tree will not sprout up into a majestic oak this year, but the sapling will poke out of the ground.” The good news is that’s referring to your financial future rather than your love life.
PISCES
Team work is apparently necessary in autumn, so feel free to ignore your colleagues for the next nine months, and you’re also advised that “it might be uncomfortable to open yourself to the probing interests of another but it’s time.” The good news is that this refers to your love life, not trying to get through Customs.
AQUARIUS
CAPRICORN
What do the stars say? Behold, some of the ‘best’ minds in astrology have spoken. For the lucky few whose birthdays fall in the next three months, find out what the stars have in store for you. Read in disbelief as expert astrologers reveal exactly what your personality is really like.
The stars say that “2011 is a two-sided coin for Pisces,” which is good because one-sided coins aren’t much use to anyone. Early in the year “a friend may disappoint you – be firm and if they are asking for a money loan, don’t hesitate to say no.” Which may be pretty disappointing for your friends, as well. In love, you’re advised that “you idealise sentimental love songs, but this year will exceed you to concretise your most intimate dreams,” make of that what you will, and finally on the health front you’re told to “take care not to make dead end on the dairy products, particularly.” Which is obviously great advice for everybody. sources: www.freeservice4u.com, www.horoscopes-love.eu, www.foreverhoroscopes.com
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Travel by What the Annual Holiday Survey says about our customers, now and in 2011 Everywhere we go, we leave a trail of numbers. From checking Facebook in the morning to logging in at work, from our lunchtime texts to popping to the supermarket before we get home, right down to ordering a movie and a pizza online, we’re creating data with everything we do. And that data is valuable. Just one person’s data isn’t worth much, but adding in more people and more time means you can start to see patterns emerge. Data from a couple of thousand people over a couple of years means you can spot trends and, based on them, make accurate guesses of what will happen in the future. That’s why Tesco have their Clubcard, why Sainsbury’s encourage you to collect Nectar points, and it’s why The Co-operative Travel sends out its Annual Holiday Survey every year.
It gets us answers to the big questions: Why didn’t last year’s customers book this year? What kind of holidays are our customers booking? Most importantly, what will they be booking in 2011?
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numbers This year’s survey was sent out to our customers in July and got 1,300 responses, which we compared with an online survey which got around 2,750 responses. The first clear result to emerge was good news; our customers seem to be recovering from the recession.
And there’s more good news for travel agents: we’re still the top source of information for holidays, beating the internet into second place. But we can’t be complacent because it’s gaining on us year by year.
In 2010, almost half of our customers hadn’t booked a holiday in the last six months because of their financial situations. That might not sound good, but in 2009 even more – 61 per cent – said they had less disposable income, 31 per cent were worried about exchange rates, and 17 per cent didn’t take holidays because they were uncertain about the economy. This year only a quarter weren’t happy about poor exchange rates, and 17 per cent cited the volcanic ash crisis as a reason for not booking a break.
Following the relaunch of our website two years ago, our high street and online customers are beginning to mix – almost half our online customers have either booked or considered booking with The Co-operative Travel in the high street.
The recession is still having an obvious effect, but it’s nowhere near as bad as the media make out. The number of customers booking holidays abroad is down by one per cent on last year, and the number booking two or more holidays is down by eight per cent. 92 per cent plan a holiday abroad next year, up one per cent on the year before. Those who aren’t planning to go away blame money, but only 60 per cent as opposed to last year’s 78 per cent. Uncertainty about the economy has fallen too.
The Co-operative brand campaign hasn’t changed the customers The Co-operative Travel attracts. We’re still selling to older customers: 27 per cent are aged between 41 and 55, 31 per cent are aged between 56 and 65 and 28 per cent are aged 66 or older. Just 14 per cent of our customers are 40 or under, and 41 per cent of our customers are retired. More than two-thirds are married, but four out of five have no children aged 16 or under in their household, so we’re still not attracting young people or families which makes our Generation Y and Family projects more important than ever.
What are the holiday trends? As expected, Europe’s popularity is still sliding and non-Euro destinations are still on the up, but the numbers are small. In 2009 it was all about lates, with bookings peaking in May, but in 2010 the desire for security brought holidaymakers back to the high street and January was our best booking period. Package holidays are still popular with our customers – three out of four booking one – and seven per cent more than last year booked face-to-face. Last year holiday choice was about the best price, but this year it’s about the financial security of booking with a reputable company.
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Neil Hardy’s Gadget page
©2010 Sony Computer Entertainment Inc. All righted reserved. Design and specifications are subject to change without notice.
Party Games It arrived in the post; a box of tricks containing a camera, two gadgets that look like microphones or TV remotes with glowing balls stuck on the end, and a game called Sports Champions. My 10-year-old son Tom and I hastily unpacked and set up our long-awaited PlayStation Move. If you’re not into computer games, it’s a control system a bit like the Nintendo Wii that tracks wherever that glowing ball is on its camera. You use it as a table tennis bat, as a bow and arrow, as a weapon… Sports Champions pitted father and son against each other in an epic battle – and I wasn’t about to go easy on the boy. The first round was Disc Golf, frisbee throwing around a golf course which sounds weird but is brilliant. First blood to Tom here, who beat me 5 – 0. Next came Gladiator Duel, fighting it out in Roman times, surely an arena where a 10-year-old has no chance against a man with well-honed martial instincts. My mistake. I lasted a minute at most against Tom before being brought to the ground and losing all my lives. So over to archery, which I thought would be more my forte. Apparently not, as I suffer another beating at the hands of my own son, this time 3 – 0. I’ve yet to score a single point as we go into table tennis, a game I have to win if I want to salvage any pride. A few minutes later it’s 21 – 0 to Tom and my controller is lying on the floor. Maybe next time I should ask him to go easy on me. My wounded ego aside, Move has taken gaming for me and Tom to another level. It’s so easy to use and perfect for family parties where granny can go up against a toddler while everyone cheers their side. There aren’t too many games for it right now but there are more coming out next year. I’m especially looking forward to Killzone 3, one of my favourite action games, using the Move as a gun…
Neil’s verdict: PlayStation Move It’s fantastic, a mind-blowing new way of playing that’s perfect for newcomers to the world of computer games. Instantly addictive and huge fun.
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We’ve put together FIVE magical packages to suit every taste and budget. All include essentials like flights, accommodation and park tickets, plus select packages include extras like car hire or dining! Book by 31 March 2011 and see below how your customers can save up to £1500!
*Saving of £1500 applies to the Ultimate Disney & Orlando Package and is based on a 14 night holiday for a family of 2 adults and 2 children (one over 9 years old, one under 9 years old) travelling together including: e Flights e Accommodation in a shared standard room at any Disney Deluxe Resort, Disney’s Old Key West Resort & Spa or Disney’s Saratoga Springs Resort & Spa e Disney’s Ultimate 14-day ticket e Disney Dining Plan
*For hotel stays 1 Aug–18 Nov 2011 only. Discounts vary depending on Tour Operator and package booked and are applied at time of booking. Stays are subject to room and flight availability. Offers apply to new bookings only. Offers cannot be combined with any other offers or discounts available. For full offer terms and conditions visit www.disneytravelagents.co.uk. Full Campaign details can be found on SAMI under the Disney Section. ©Disney