Travel Extra Dec 2016 Jan 2017 8 megs by Travel Extra

R U ITALY STILL NUMBER ONE FOR MOONS O E AER LINGUS BIG PLANS FOR ATLANTIC Y AD TR PER ITAA CONFERENCE ON A RIVERBOAT PA Ryanair wants 200m

Cityjet takes over Stobart

Eta explained

IRELAND'S PREMIER SOURCE OF TRAVEL INFORMATION Free

DECMBER 2016/JANUARY 2017

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eTA introduced

Canada bound passengers now need electronic visa

isitors to Canada will need an electronic visa from midnight tonight. After today Irish visitors will have to apply for an Electronic Travel Authorisation (eTA) in order to board their flight. For Irish citizens to get an eTA it will cost CAD $7 (€4.80) and they can access the visa application form online. Most eTA applications are approved within minutes of applying and are valid for three years (the USA charges $14 for ESTA and it is valid for just two years). Canada has twice postponed the Electronic Travel Authorisation scheme due to IT issues. Canadians with dual citizenship must now use a Canadian passport to enter the country and will need a valid Canadian passport to board their flights to Canada. See Dual Canadian citizens need a Canadian passport. The new conditions do not apply to those who have dual Canadian-American citizenship.

It used to be one of Ireland’s most expensive routes. Now both Ryanair and KLM fly four times daily from Dublin and KLM have added a Belfast service, with Aer Lingus also serving the city. Watch the fares drop.

HARTFORD

Once home to Mark Twain, his house is the pick of the local attractions. Great launch point for the leaf and ski playgrounds of upstate New York and New England. Hang out in the Mortensen Riverfront Plaza.

COURCHEVEL became the latest ski resort to open early in response to heavy snows. Verbier, Alpe d’Huez, Cervinia and Val Senales have all brought forward their openings. LYNK the taxi app developed by Noel

Ebbs, is on course to generate sales of €12m this year, and plans to expand to England, USA and Canada. The app charges taxi companies a license fee, and does not bill drivers directly. He has 2,500 drivers in Dublin and plans to expand into Cork, with two taxi firms, in the new year. A separate app company called Riide, which he owns with nine other investors, is on standby to launch with 15,000 drivers in the UK, where he hopes to be the No. 2 in the market with adapted software to meet British regulations and then US and Canada, with another 15,000 drivers.

TOP 20 The Reputation Institute (website) ranked Dublin the 20th most reputable city in the world. Sydney finished ahead of Vienna, Zurich, Toronto and Stockholm. Celebrating the launch of Dublin-Vancouver Dublin will have 31 services a week to Canada in summer 2017, to Halifax (ASL Europe 1w), Montreal (Air Transat 1w), St Johns (Westjet

7w), Toronto (Aer Lingus 7w, Air Canada Rouge 10w, Air Transat 4w, Westjet via St Johns 7w) and Vancouver (Air Canada Rouge 4w).

DESTINATIONS FOR 2017

AMSTERDAM

NEWS

KEFLAVIK The boom in

tourism to Iceland shows no sign of abating, Wow Air have added a 4w Cork service to their daily Dublin.

MIAMI Aer Lingus new flight

to commence September takes off at 3pm and lands at 19.15, optimising the cruise ship boarding options but also catching the last wave of flights to South America.

MUNICH more accessible with Transavia joining Aer Lingus and Lufthansa on the route.

PORTO Aer Lingus have

joined Ryanair in the city of bridges over the scenic Duoro, with lots of rivercruise potential as well as a kick start for exploring the winelands and delicious northlands.

QATAR to start in May, so

says the CEO, but he needs a free 787. We await further news.

SPLIT Aer Lingus flies Dubrov-

nik already and has added the istrian destination, previously served by ASL charter.

EGYPT devalued its currency by 48pc to meet an IMF loan demand.

AUSTRALIA joined the US in warning citizens against travel in India.

BRAZIL Government officials in Brazil are considering a permanent visa waiver for travellers from several countries as the country looks to build on the success of the Olympic Games.

ORLANDO US theme park operator, with the help of international investors, may be looking to build a major project on more than 200 acres of land that includes a majority of Artegon Marketplace on Orlando’s International Drive, and a 78-acre parcel of land just south of the mall. DUBAI Riverland Dubai and Legoland Dubai officially opened their doors.

ALPSAn astonishing statistic from the AlpNet three day conference in Innsbruck every fifth EU-28 overnight stay is in the Alps. The Alps account for almost half of skiing days worldwide – a third in Austria alone.

MEXICO AND JAMAICA Now on sale for Summer 2017

JANUARY 2017 PAGE 4

THE KNOWLEDGE

Travel Extra Advertising & Subscriptions 59 Rathfarnham Road Terenure Dublin D6WAK70 t+3531 2957418 Editorial Office Clownings Straffan Co Kildare W23 C6X9 Managing Editor: Gerry O’Hare gerry@travelextra.ie Editor: Eoghan Corry eoghan.corry@ travelextra.ie Publisher: Edmund Hourican edmund@bizex.ie Sales Director: Maureen Ledwith maureen@bizex.ie

t: +3531 291 3700 Sales Manager Paulette Moran paulette@bizex.ie t: +353 (0)1 291 3702 Accounts and Advertising: Maria Sinnot maria@bizex.ie T: +3531 291 3707 Distribution Manager Shane Hourican shane@bizex.ie t: +3531 291 3706 Pictures: pix@travelextra.ie Sunday Supplement & Online: Conor McMahon conor@travelextra.ie Chief Features Writer: Anne Cadwallader anne@travelextra.ie Contributors : Eanna Brophy eanna@travelextra.ie Marie Carberry marie@travelextra.ie Carmel Higgins carmel@travelextra.ie Cauvery Madhavan cauvery@travelextra.ie Sean Mannion sean@grafacai.ie Catherine Murphy cathmurph@yahoo.com

Travel Extra takes no responsibility for errors and omissions. Origination: Typeform

Printer: W&G Baird Limited Greystone Press Caulside Drive Antrim BT41 2RS

CONTENTS

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3 News Where to go, how much to pay 6 Hotels: News 8 Postcards: News from the trade

12 Weddings: Behind the veil 22 Escorted Tours: More than a coach 26 Afloat: MSC all stars of the seas 28 Flying: Aer LIngus looks west again

32 Global Village Inside the travel industry 34 Awards: Travel Extra writer awards 36 Window seat: Our columnists 37 Pictures: Out and about

Selling weddings

round 4,000 Irish couples look abroad each year for their wedding arrangements. With an average cost of €8,000, a third of the €23,000 average they can spend on a wedding at home, it keeps costs down for the couple. It is also big business for the trade, with an average of 25 people attending a wedding abroad it means there is €50m worth of business out there for those selling flights, transfers and accommodation, not to mention a slice of the €32m spend on wedding packages. There is commission to be made from wedding packages. Guest accommodation and travel, pre wedding and post wedding and guest activities, reconnaissance visits by the couple in advance and Wedmoons.

BUDGET It is all about budget. Within a few minutes of sitting down with your client you should have established how much they are willing to spend. How many guests? Four star or five star? The average costs of a four star wedding abroad is €8,000 for the reception and for seven nights for bride and groom, but it can mount after that. If in doubt, sell from the top down. Your customers will soon tell you if that is not their budget. KNOW your stuff.

Make sure your knowledge of the legals and documentation required is up to date. In France you have to be resident for 40 days, in Barbados you can arrive on the day of your wedding.

Wedding couple in Bologna, Italy is the most popular wedding venue abroad

MAKE it easy

for the couple so you will get the bookings. Packages and oddons are easier to sell. Most packages include photography, ceremony, flowers, music, video editing and planning support. The extras can include cakes, more time on or off site for couple and guests, and transport.

CHANGE their

thinking. Some brides are too cautious, they do not realise that five star luxury is only a few euro more. Pitch the romantic the sense of fairytale wedding created by an exotic venue and climate. Couples are looking for something different. Point out that getting married abroad invariably means less family politics, a more intimate ceremony and guaranteed weather.

gest number of enquiries are for Malta, followed by Cyprus and Croatia. Sunway says their most popular destinations are Egypt, the Caribbean, Las Vegas, New York and Mauritius. Generally weddings would be on a civil basis. Sunway’s Vegas product is very popular and very easy to organise. Couples get assistance with paper work and marriage

registry. GET local expertise or outside help. It is worth it. Selling a wedding can be a high maintenance operation. The trade refers to controlling brides as Bridezilla, the ones who have high demands and tend to come back with complaints. In 80pc of cases the bride does all the planning but when the groom does the arrangements, the wish list can be even more taxing.

hire can SWITCH SELL: VENUE change the cost of the

Introduce destinations they never even thought about. Concorde’s big-

wedding dramatically. Some hotels don’t charge extra for venue

hire, depending the number who are coming. For instance they won’t charge for 60 guests, they will for 20 guests.

STRESS the value when wine is included. Menus start at €15 but watch for the extras that come with €45-€50 menus, many Mediterranean hotels will provide beer and wine with the menu, with only spirits costing extra. Planning an Irish wedding that could be a distinct advantage. Even if you do pay for wine, €5 a bottle is one third what they pay in Ireland. CONFRONT

the negatives, that family may be unable to travel through old age or health (point out the convenience of direct flight destinations such as Malta), family traditions, the extra planning, the fact that couples feel it is too difficult and feel no control and wouldn’t know where to start. It is the agent’s job to brush over those obstacles and se-

cure the knowledge and contacts on the ground to reassure the couple. Tempt them to talk and show evidence of your previous bookings through photos, videos and testimonials. Use social media and offer a clear uncomplicated package in your online material.

CRUISE Mention it is possible for captains to perform legal wedding ceremonies at sea sailing through international waters or on board a docked cruises ship in many venues. Cruise can offer the best value weddings and a ready made honeymoon. STAY in touch. Even if they don’t take a wedding package they may go on honeymoon with you. The point of contact is valuable. Of the 25,000 wedding a year in Ireland, 75pc of couples say they considered going abroad to go abroad and 48pc say they requested quotes.

PERFECT WEDDINGS & HONEYMOONS ABROAD 2017 BROCHURE

With warm, sunny weather all year round, stunning volcanic landscapes, exotic beaches and an unbeatable choice of luxury hotels, all just over four hours away, Tenerife is the perfect location for a wedding or honeymoon abroad. The largest of the Canary Islands, Tenerife offers a diverse countryside, ranging from lunar-like landscapes to lush ancient forests and fertile valleys, as well as a spectacular coastline with dramatic cliffs and 70 kilometres of beaches.

Tenerife offers all that and much more, including unique experiences such as whale watching or nights out stargazing in Teide National Park, also a World Heritage site, that will provide truly unforgettable memories for your wedding album.

Picturesque towns like Garachico in the north of the island are great places to soak up the welcoming Spanish atmosphere while trying the local food and wines. Historic cities like La Laguna, a World Heritage site, or the capital, Santa Cruz, as well as the main resorts in the south, offer a vast choice of stores and luxury boutiques to indulge in tax-free shopping.

Just imagine having a blessing ceremony on the beach, amidst tropical gardens looking out to the Atlantic Ocean, or against the backdrop of the majestic peak of Mount Teide. Hire a local wedding planner or book one of Tenerifeâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s most exclusive hotels offering tailor made wedding packages with dedicated staff who will make sure that all your dreams come true.

Besides, Tenerife boasts a fantastic array of top quality spas offering everything from volcanic mud treatments to hydrotherapy for a bit of pampering. And those looking for the utmost exclusivity can enjoy anything from chauffeur-driven limousines to private helicopter tours.

To find out more about the most exclusive side of Tenerife go to www.webtenerife.co.uk/tenerifeselect

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HOTELS SHANNON College of Hotel Manage-

ment is to launch Ireland’s first uni-versityawarded certificate course in Hotel Leadership in January 2017,

STR said Ireland’s hotels recorded its 10th

consecutive quarter of double-digit RevPAR growth in September. Occupancy was up 0.6pc to 89.6pc, ADR up 13.9pc to €133.04 and RevPAR up 14.5pc to €119.22.

ESPA

at The Europe in Killarney won Hotel Spa of the Year at the Euro-pean Hospitality Awards.

IRELAND’s Blue Book added Belleek

Castle in Mayo, Hilton Park Manor in Monaghan and Paul and Máire Flynn’s The Tannery in Co Waterford to its collection for 2017, bringing the total number of properties in the col-lection to a record 50.

MARKER profit.

hotel reported a €2.4m

AIRBNB said hosts in regional and rural Ireland earned €27m over the last year by occasionally sharing space in their home. Their report, entitled “Home-Sharing: Empowering Regional & Rural Ireland”, was launched by Minister Heather Humphreys.

CBRE’s bi-monthly report showed 37

Irish hotel transactions worth €283m in the first nine months of 2016, €710m could be spent on hotel transac-tions in Ireland this year, matching the record-high set in 2015. Sales include the Spencer Hotel in the IFSC, the Beacon Hotel in Sandyford and the Morgan Hotel in Temple Bar.

DOYLE hotel family has acquired properties adjoining its five-star The Westbury which would add another 50 bedrooms at the hotel, 6-7 and 8-9 Balfe Street, and 1 Westbury Mall. Ashford Castle reported an exceptional year on its €100m investment. JURYS Inns’ owners said they aim to bounce back from a €170m loss. CAMDEN ST Pub chain Wether-

spoon are to open a 98-bedroom hotel and bar com-plex in a former Dublin homeless hostel on Camden Street.

www.travelextra.ie

Carlow for value

Some surprises in the Trivago hotel awards

vlon House in carlow won the best value accommodation in Ireland as the price comparison website Trivago compiled their set of first hotel awards. Avlon was one of several surprises in the results across eight cateegorie.s Winners of the Tripadvisor and AA award Harvey’s Point was back on the podium, with two category wins as was Killeen House in Killarney, another serial winner in peer review and judged awards. Tom Donagher, Owner, Avlon House said: “all we try to do is give visitors to our home a comfortable stay in a warm environment with clean well-equipped en-suite room followed by a hearty breakfast from our menu. It is important to us in a busy world that guests’ quality leisure time is respected at all times, offering advice on request and privacy,

THE WINNERS

5* Merrion Dublin 4* Harvey’s Point Donegal 3* Killeen House, Killarney Giuesthouse: Tides Ballybunion Value Avlon House Carlow Breakfast Ariel House Dublin Service Killeen House Kerry Accomm Harvey’s Point Donegal

Avlon House tranquility and peace as standard.” The data for the B&B, 3-star, 4-star and 5-star categories is taken from the trivago Rating Index (tRI), which aggregates over 175 million hotel reviews globally. An algorithm is used to produce a 100-point index score, which is updated daily to produce clear, transparent and unbiased results. The data for the Best Value,

Breakfast, Service and Guest Room categories was taken from a semantic analysis, in which guests’ online reviews were analysed to identify which hotels scored highest in these categories. For the trivago Awards, hotels with sufficient availability and at least 20 reviews were considered.

BALLYFIN WINS CONDE NAST 1ST

allyfin was voted world’s best hotel by readers of Conde Nast traveller. Waterford Castle was placed 7th

and The Lodge at Ashford Castle 9th. Four Irish hotels were named among the top 25 Resorts in Europe: Ashford Castle 5th, Trump International

Doonbeg 20th, Adare Manor 21st and Dromoland Castle 24

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JANUARY 2017 PAGE 7

DESTINATION WALES

ife travels at a leisurely pace in Llandudno, North Wales. The town, with its fresh sea air, high-rising headlands hugging either end of the shoreline, and the longest pier in Britain, truly is strolling country. And not only does time feel different in Llandudno but, with its picturesque Victorian promenade, it feels like it’s from another time too. Llandudno is the largest seaside resort town in Wales, and it truly does feel resorty. The promenade seems to be mostly compiled of hotels, and Llandudno has been dubbed “Queen of the Welsh Resorts” since the 1860s. Its shoreline stretches out alongside the Irish sea, and is framed between the Great Orme -- complete with cable cars to take in the magnificent view from 80ft up -- and the Little Orme. Unfortunately, the famous cable car wasn’t running during my stay due to the wind, and I decided against braving the walk to the summit as predict-able black clouds threatened the sky. I did, however, risk the weather to dash down the pier, just to say I’d made it to the end of Britain’s longest, and to take in the amazing view and peruse the little shops which line it along the way. Yet, if life travels slowly in Llandudno, the opposite is true for many other areas of North Wales, as 2016 is Wales’ ‘Year of the Adventure’, and North Wales is making a name for itself as an adventure tourism hub. In direct contrast with the tranquillity of Llandudno, it has been attracting adrenaline junkies by utilising a combination of its natural formations, kit-ting out the slate caverns and high hills of Blaenau Ffestiniog for zip lining, and building new attractions, like the purpose-built wave pool,

Slate crazy Louise McLoughlin joins North Wales year of adventure Down pit in Blaenau Ffestiniog

Surf Snow-donia, which is one-of-a-kind in Britain. Luckily for visitors who enjoy adrenaline and relaxation in equal measure, all of the adventure is close enough to Llandudno to experience both. Thus, my fleeting weekend trip was split into a day of adventure activities on Sunday, preceded by a lazy Llandudno Saturday exploring the town and its weekend-long Llawn04 festival, which happened to coincide with my stay.

y first adventure of Sunday proved to be finding a taxi, as Llandudno ex-ists in somewhat of a no man’s land so far as Uber is concerned. The drive itself to the adventure activities at Zip World takes about an hour, and my driver was chatty, charming, and full of information about the area generally. His charm was in keeping with what I had come to expect from the Welsh, who were generally eager to help, full of stories, and cheekily funny in a way the south isn’t. As we drove he made me repeat Welsh words

after him to try perfect the language’s particular pronunciations (I couldn’t), and pointed out newly opened attractions, or ones that were soon to open. Things really did seem to be thriving in North Wales. We circled past the artificial wave pool at Surf Snowdonia, which looked busy despite it being only 10am.

ip World’s home --- Blaenau Ffestiniog -- is a historic mining town, and as we passed through the mountains into the valley there was one spec-tacular view after another at each corner. Mined slate tumbled down pockets in the valley, and thin roads wound upwards. I found the hilliness, the spread of green, and the fresh air nos-talgically Irish, and utterly different to London, just four hours away by train. In fact, so far removed was I from London that not only did the taxi not take card, all the ATMs were out of service, and I was only finally able to pay when a service station relented and entirely emptied their till to give me cash back. Zip World itself was

a direct contradiction to its slow and quiet surround-ings. I arrived early and, although it was already busy, I was allowed to move my zip lining and cavern bookings forward. First up was Titan, comprised of three zip lines spanning over 2,000 meters, which I presumed would be the bigger adrenaline dump. As a solo traveller, there are upsides and downsides to going on Titan by yourself. Upside: I could slot in wherever there was one zip line free, and therefore skip ahead of big groups. Downside: At 5’2’’ I was far too light to pick up much speed going down the line (taller people and pairs kept zooming past me, no matter how aerodynamic I tried to be). Coupled with the wind, my experience of Titan was more an opportunity to view the beautiful scenery of the valley than the adrenaline pumping experience I’d been hoping for. Yet, as others zipped past me and their screams whipped through the air I think the calmer experience was uniquely mine.

he caverns on the other hand, tapped directly into my sense of adven-ture. They are comprised of a former slate mine, which had been inac-cessible for almost 200 years, and has now been decked out with zip lines, tunnels, rope bridges, and eerie neon lighting. The activity involves a lot of shimmying across walls on walkways which are sometimes only big enough to perch your foot on, and looking down to the ground 180ft below, or sometimes into a drop of complete darkness. Of course, the height, the drop, the slightly damp walls, and the tiny slippery metal slabs on which to stand are all part of the fun – it is an adventure activity after all. Or maybe I was just feeling brave after coming face-to-face my inevi-table death in The Trip a day earlier. Either way, the caverns hit the sweet spot of making me shake a little with adrenaline, but not feel genuinely terrified for my life. That said, every time I kicked off from the platform to zip line I had a second of self-doubt that I haven’t attached everything correctly, and the reality of how high I was really was hit again. But my brief training hadn’t failed, I was safely attached and, after that initial jolt, I was able to relax and enjoy the speed until I found myself shooting towards the next landing platform (and com-ing in too fast, as I did almost every time).

n addition to the dampness, it’s also notably chilly inside the subterrane-an caverns. Yet because the course is underground it can be done re-gardless of the weather -- which is good news for any at-

traction based in Wales. The course can take up to three hours to swing, climb and blindly zoom your way through and up higher and higher. Once you conquer the caverns and emerge back into the outside world you can get your picture on a piece of slate for £20, which actually looks pretty impressive, and is far more of a keeper than most of the novelty photos you buy at a similar price. Alas, somehow I was blocking my own face in every photo from both Titan and the Caverns, so I left slateless, and surprisingly exhausted from the adrenaline dump of both activities over the past four hours. There was just enough time to enjoy the views of the valley on the way back to Llandudno, and the chat of my Welsh taxi driver before I was boarding my train home while wishing for just one more night. As I sat on the train home I remembered how a man had described the train from Chester to Llandudno as: “The most beautiful train journey he had ever taken in his life”. He hadn’t been wrong. My train pulled away from the sunset, and past the green hills, which turned my thoughts again to Ireland, and then back to Wales, which had proved so much more beautiful and exciting than I had imagined. ■ This year, Trip Advisor named the Llandudno as the number one seaside resort in the country as part of their Travellers’ Choice awards. I can see why, the town is truly beautiful, quaint, and -- having journeyed up from London -- a tranquil retreat. And if the calm of the seaside gets too much for the adventurer inside of you, Zip World is only a scenic drive and a zoom away.

■ Louise McLoughlin stayed at Llandudno Bay Hotel as a guest of Visit Wales.

JANUARY 2017 PAGE 8

POSTCARDS FROM THE TRAVEL SCENE

ebecca Kelly and Erica Oglesby of MSC hosted 12 Irish agents on a celebratory three day cruise to reward the 1,800 agents worldwide shortlisted for All Stars of the sea awards. MSC Fantasia departed Genoa for Barcelona and returned to the MSC homeport via Marseilles. The All Stars cruise has been one of the highlights of the social calendar for

tar performers at the CAPA/ ACTE aviation summit in Amsterdam were, predictably, Akbar Al Baker CEO of Qatar and Tony Fernandes Founder and CEO of Air Asia. Tony Fernandes gave an emotional account of how not being allowed home from boarding school permits are because the flights are too expensive had fired his passion to launch a long more low-cost airline stop.

xhibitor numbers for the 2016 World Travel Market were slightly down on 2015 but the event proved the liveliest for years. There was no fog this year to disrupt the 400 arrivals from Ireland for the event. Crowded aisles at Excel led to 200 destinations all building their brands around similar products. Speaker forums concentrated on issues such as Brexit and Travel Extra editor Eoghan

several years but the 2016 effort excelled itself with a white themed night that ended in the karaoke bar with Antonio Paradiso of MSC leading the singalong, a gala dinner and some heroic sessions in the jazz bar and casino. Picture shows Antoinella Novak, Rebecca Kelly and Erica Oglesby of MSC being photographed on the steps of the MSC Fantasia on gala dinner night.

Akbar Al Baker was also anxious to stir a partner to with his condemnation EU regulation which seem to be getting on particular airlines. Speakers from Ireland included Bobby Healy of car trawler, Jim Gallagher a former Ryanair and Etihad lawyer now turning his attention to Uber (pictured together), Pat Byrne the founder and executive chair of Cityjet, and David O’Brien COO of Ryanair

Corry was among the speakers He is pictured with Tony Hickey of Ethiopian quadrants. Florida had their best party for many years with karaoke session. Tenerife hosted agents on-board a clipper ship. Malaysia had a big and boisterous evening. Much of the action was to be found in the Middle East section but smaller countries got a look in, too, with Palestine holding their first press conference.

at Ward of Dublin port joined Lorraine Quinn and Jo Rzymowska of Celebrity Cruises to announce a mini season operating from Dublin for the first time. It is a big boost for Ward’s plans to turn Dublin in a cruise homeport to rival Southampton, building on the access and proximity of one of Europe’s fastest growing airports. Celebrity will homeport a Solstice

ood Food Ireland celebrated their 10th anniversary at a conference and awards in the Croke Park Conference Centre. Four ambassadors and international guests were among the attendees who were conducted on a stadium tour and drinks reception in the GAA museum and a gala dinner presented by some of the country’s top chefs, JP McMahon, Noel McMeel and Paul Kelly with

eresa Gancedo Director of the Spanish Tourist Board office in Dublin hosted some travel media to tell of the astonishing 27.4pc increase in Irish visitors to Spain this year. This means Irish visit turns to Spain are likely to pass the 2008 record of 1,659k before the end of the year, about 1,755k on current trends. Cormac Meehan President of the ITAA made the trip from Bundoran to

class ship for five sailings commencing in late April, throughout May and until the end of June 2018, one of Celebrity Cruises’ 2,800 passenger Solstice-class ships will offer cruises throughout northern Europe from Dublin enabling 14,000 people to start their cruise holiday from Dublin on a Celebrity Cruises ship in 2018. The itineraries will be ready by December 1st and will feature the fjords and northern Europe.

María José San Román from restaurante Monastrell al Paseo Marítimo in Alicante. Patrick Torrent of Catalan tourism and René Redzepi were inducted into the Tourroir hall of fame. Irish awards went to Birgitta Hedin Curtin of Burren Smokehouse, Veronica Steele of Cooleeney Cheese and Julie and Rod Calder-Potts of Highbank orchards, Cuffesgrange Co Kilkenny.

reassure the Spaniards that Ireland’s love affair with Spain is strengthening, and while we spill out into regions inaccessible to previous holidaymakers, six regions account for 93.6pc of Irish visits to Spain: Canaries, Andalusia, Catalonia, Madrid, Valencia and Balearic Islands. Galicia (up 75.61pc) and Murcia (up 39.4pc) are big growers Picture shows Sara Rivero and Immaculada Bernabeu from the Spanish TB.

JANUARY 2017 PAGE 9

POSTCARDS FROM THE TRAVEL SCENE

ighlight of Dominic Burke’s Travel centres conference in Michael O’Leary’s home town, Mullingar, was a presentation by Ann Masterson of Dublin Business School. She spoke on behavioural economics which featured a hilarious video by Pete McMunn (see also his contribution to Dublin talks on the same subject). The event attracted 170 agents at the workshop and gala dinner.

icture shows Anita Shukla first secretary and of the Indian embassy and Venu V of Kerala tourism with a group of 14 travel industry partners from Kerala who came to Dublin on the first leg of a three city tour that will take in Stockholm and Munich. Kerala attracted 13,012 Irish visitors in 2015, up from 4,445 in 2010. In a presentation to the audience the director of Kerala tourism Vedu V said that the

icture shows top performing Travel Counsellors celebrating their gold weekend on a river cruise with Scenic,. They are Susan Hegarty from Carlow; Rosemary Chawke from Clonmel; Mary Foyle from Cork; Bernie Whelan from Ireland head office, Sarah McCarthy from Cork; and Lorraine Lawless from Dunshaughlin, some of the 100 Travel Counsellors from Ireland, England,

The owners and managers’ session was attended by 35 and the afternoon sessions by 75. The country’s largest consortium by member agencies has 56 members with 76 shops. Entertainment at the fancy dress gala dinner (Dominic dressed as the Pope) was provided by the Pearly Whites and Irish dance group Damhsa. Next year’s conference takes place at INEC at Killarney on Nov 10-11 2017.

growth rate of 192pc was much more significant than the number of Irish visitors.. Kerala has seen a 33pc surge in international visitors in the past five years. It has become the first destination of choice on the sub continent for Irish tourists. Anita Shukla said the availability of the e visa for Irish visitors has helped double the number of Irish tourists travelling to India over the past 18 months.

South Africa and Australia, along with some of their travel partners Royal Caribbean International, P&O and Cunard, Celebrity Cruises, DoSomethingDifferent, and British Airways. There are ten homeworkers in Ireland with Gold status, awarded to those who earn in excess of €59,000. Five Gold Irish Travel Counsellors attended this trip, while the other five enjoyed a trip to Hong Kong in April

icture shows Jonathan Adair speaking at the 25th anniversary Northern Ireland Travel Awards which returned to their customer venue, the Slieve Donard hotel in Co Down. The awards were compered in a relaxed and informal style by James Nesbitt, who described himself as “the drinking woman’s George Clooney” having sung his way to the stage with a rollicking Fly Me to the Moon.

ugo Nascimento, (“there is more to the Algarve than a beach”), brought 17 travel writers and travel agents, including Amy Murphy of Rosetta Travel to sample the activities within an hour of Faro, one of the best served holiday gateways. The willing victims were treated to food, culinary and wine experiences, a cookery lesson with chef Margarida Varques at Tertulia Algarvia , a helicop-

icture shows women travel executives attending the AWTE exploratory meeting in Dublin airport. The event was hosted by Debbee Dale AWTE Chair, Andrea Norris AWTE Vice Chair, Lorraine Barnes Burton Finance Director and Sarah Clayton Turner as well as Maura Moloney of Dublin Airport, Lorraine Quinn of Celebrity and Clare Dunne from the Travel

He caught the mood of the industry perfectly, exchanging witticisms with suppliers such as Diane Poole of Stena as he went through the unwieldy task of directing 29 presentations. The Marty Fay band provided music and Ciaran Mulligan o a wards sponsor Blue Insurances did some deejay work before the night was out. Roll on October 20 2017. See page 33 for list of award winners.

ter ride across the crumbling cliffs and glowing red-hue headlands of the coast, a drive on the Algarve racetrack, a swim with dolphins experience at Zoomarine, a visit to Novacortica cork factory, a segway tour of Lagos city, a jeep safari through the cauldron mountains, and a tasting menu in Hans Neuner ‘s two star Michelin restaurant, Ocean. The group was accommodated at the Vila Vita Park and Epic Sana hotels.

Broker. Debbee Dale said “as one of the countries with the highest percentage of female travel executives we feel that Ireland is an ideal place for the Association of Women Travel Executives.” Founded in 1954, AWTE is a member organisation that provides women in the travel industry with a programme of professional development seminars, workshops and events for business improvement and networking.

IRELAND'S PREMIER SOURCE OF TRAVEL INFORMATION

www.grancanaria.com

JANUARY 2017 PAGE 11

SPECIAL FEATURE

Gran Canaria: A continent in miniature

ran Canaria is like a continent in miniature, alive with varied natural beauty, from the stunning sand dunes of Maspalomas, volcanic mountainous interior to the world-famous fabulous golden sand beaches. Gran Canaria is a big player when it comes to quality. It perfect climate makes it a year round paradise for winter breaks as well as for main summer holidays. It has a great offer of luxury re-sorts as well as boutique intimate hotels and all facilities present high standards of comfort and service. The good test of up market holidays is a varied offer of SPAs and Thalasso centres and the choice in Gran Canaria is enormous. Golf holidays on Gran Canaria offer unforgettable experi-ence, with 7 magnificent courses, all developed by top designers, the island is a golferʼs paradise. For the completely different experience stroll through the winding narrow cobbled streets of Vegueta, the old quarter of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria or climb the scenic roads in serpentine twists up into the spectacular central massif

of this volcanic island, passing terraced ﬁelds and en-chasing villages. The dramatic Pico de las Nieves, almost in the centre of Gran Canaria towers almost 2,000 meters high and presents amazing far-reaching views over the sacred rock Roque Bentayga and the landmark of Gran Canaria, Roque Nublo. From this vantage point, you have only to gaze about you to see why UNESCO has declared almost half of the island as a Biosphere Reserve.

ran Canaria will soon have the most amazing Aquarium in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria. The Aquarium called “Poem to the Sea” and located in the port, is to be a huge attraction for the capital city. While it is already a popular cruise ship and day trip destination, and a growing winter city break destination, a worldclass aquarium is a much needed boost for the city, giving a major attraction with a wide range of marine creatures, including squid, sharks, rays and local ﬁsh on display. The 10,000 square metre aquarium site is close to the Shopping

Centre and the Cruise Ship Dock and may also include a new hotel. This project has been developing by well experienced Kiessling family, the owner of Loro Park and Siem Park.

ran Canaria continues updating its accommodation oﬀer and resorts infrastructure. There is a clear trend in redeveloping hotels in Playa del Inglés by creating high quality ultra-modern 5*, 4* and 3* properties with stunning design and high tech features, giving a special focus on well-being and healthy living. Check fashionable adults only 5* Bohemia Suites & Spa –Design Hotels member; Santa Mónica Suites, located directly within Maspalomes dunes, cool Gold by Marina and just revamped THe Anamar Suites, Ca-serío Hotel and Servatur Waikiki The top ﬁve of Gran Carania:

The thermometer wonʼt give you a fright on Gran Canaria. There are no extremes of hot and cold on the island. You wonʼt be scorched by summer or bitten by winter on Gran Canaria. Thanks to a fortunate location and generous trade winds,

youʼll experience temperatures with an annual average of 24 degrees. The sun may play hide or seek with you at times, but itʼs your friend rather than your enemy. Gently warming you up without ever toasting you. Seasons blend into one on Gran Canaria, with no sudden descent into an Arctic chill of winter or acceleration towards a sultry Saharan summer.

Gran Canariaʼs a natural beauty. Time stands still on Gran Canaria. Welcome to an island which preserves its looks with around half its surface protected from development. Journey into the interior of Gran Canaria to discover its amazing volcanic origins. And enjoy it responsibly, so future generations will be able to continue to admire its pretty curves.

Lifeʼs a beach on Gran Canaria. Gran Canaria accommodates 60 kilometres of beaches along its 236 kilometres of coastline. The coastal areas have long been a playground for locals. And theyʼre proud to share their treasure island with you. Step inside what feels like the pages of a holiday brochure to ﬁnd carpets of golden sand under your feet in the southern beaches. Or hit the north to ﬁnd more secluded,

sometimes stony spots to sun yourself and swim. A day out at the beach is a luxury for most Europeans, but for Gran Canaria natives itʼs one of everyday lifeʼs simple pleasures.

Gran Canariaʼs an outdoor gym. Because Gran Canaria boasts favourable all-year-round weather, you can play sports outdoors all year round. Hikers will love following in the footsteps of walkers who have boldly gone before them, on a network of trails which crisscrosses the island. Cyclists will be tested by the steep climbs but rewarded with jawto- theﬂoor views of Gran Canaria and beyond. Meanwhile, the Atlanticʼs fantastic for those who want to surf its mega waves, discover the amazing marine life under the sea with a dive, or even ﬁsh for their supper.

Destinations donʼt get much more family friendly than Gran Canaria. Say hola to an island thatʼs a place for the whole family to enjoy. For Gran Canariaʼs ideally enjoyed in the company of loved ones. So, if youʼre coupled up or travelling with kids in tow, youʼll ﬁnd the island has plenty of attractions, from water parks to zoos, to keep even the littlest ones entertained during your stay.

JANUARY 2017 PAGE 12

WEDDINGS & HONEYMOONS SPECIAL

or richer or for poorer, the number of people getting married is not going to decline. A total of 25,000 tie the knot each year, and according to research company Mintel, one in five couples are doing so abroad. The prospect of spending the happiest day of their lives in a draughty church tempts couples to sunnier climes, but the fact that getting married abroad is just a third of the cost of getting married at home is even more appealing.

he cost of a wedding abroad has risen and now costs just over €8,000. This is still attractive compared with as an average €23,000 for an Irish-based ceremony. This figure, importantly, does not include guest accommodation or flights. Not that people want to go abroad for a cheap wedding. Nobody wants a cheap wedding. They still want a fairytale wedding and a happily every after. They want something special. Wedding planners are increasing in number and expertise in the details of the wedding. The travel trade has the expertise to add the flights, transfers and accommodation, as well as taking over the hassle of dealing with the tricky business of the details of the wedding ceremony itself. The average wedding abroad involves 25 people, so it is good business for the travel trade.

Bouquet list Preparing the big day

It enables the agent having a long term relationship with the customer. Most of the serious discussion takes place between a year and two years ahead of the event. Your clients are more needy than the average and a degree of counselling is helpful. If you make it easy, you will get the bookings. The packages available include photography, the ceremony itself, flowers, music wedding planning support, extras like cake and transport. When they are thinking of getting married tempt them to talk. Use photos and videos in selling the product. Cite testimonials. eddings are well-suited for promotion

on social media: 90pc of brides now research their wedding online. Offline as well as online, networking is huge. Every wedding guest is a potential customer or source of advice to another couple. Communicate a clear package with a package price they can get their head around. If you don’t have a precise package to offer them the planning process gets stalled. Once they have a package they can add on to that. The commission from wedding packages is important but there are other commissionable elements, guest accommodation and travel, pre wedding and post wedding activities, and guest activities, reconnaissance visits in advance, and wedmoons.

Many consider getting married abroad: 75pc of couples say they looked at getting married away from home, and 48pc say they requested quotes. Even if they do not choose to get married abroad, many of these will be interested in using the travel trade for their honeymoon. The overall resistance to the idea is declining, and the destination choice is expanding. They are not just interested in sun destinations, winter destinations feature too. Point out that a wedding abroad has guaranteed weather, is more intimate and that there tends to be less family politics. The couple really gets to know who their true friends are when they ask them to risk losing their

luggage and patience on a low-cost airline flight. The cost of flights, hotel accommodation and the fact that there is no Barry’s Tea available may deter a few of the older, more distant relatives — which in some circumstances, might be an advantage. The cons of a wedding abroad tend to be that a family member is unable to travel due to health, family traditions, it is too difficult, they feel they have no control, they wouldn’t know where to start, and it takes a lot more planning. These fears are wellfounded; a surprising number of things may be beyond their control when they get married abroad.

AN €82m BUSINESS AND GROWING

our thousand Irish a year now choose to say “I do” on foreign soil. Getting married abroad is big business. Weddings are a €32m business, not including flights and accommodation. With an average of 25 people travelling for 4,000 Irish weddings abroad the business is worth €82m.

Several of the travel industry’s big names produce dedicated brochures for the “cupid market”, as its called in the trade. The general idea is to first choose the destination, and the hotel that offers the most attractive wedding package, and then check the full details of the

holiday (including prices) in the main brochure. Charges for the wedding itself vary widely. In fact, in many cases, the ceremony and paperwork are thrown in free if the couple stays for a week or more. That’s because wily companies are really interested in what they will spend on the honeymoon

(understandably, as we all tend to splash out here). As well as the tempting brochures, most have a team of matrimonial experts to advise on the legal logistics and run through the options available at different hotels.

he timing of the wedding, for example, often depends on the availability of a registrar (or similar), and therefore can often be confirmed only on arrival; the couple’s request for a particular time will be noted, but often no more. Also note that most registrars, especially in the Caribbean, only work Monday to Friday, so they often won’t be able to have the traditional Saturday wedding. Ireland’s favourite wedding abroad destination is Italy, followed by Malta. Italy’s Tuscany and Sorrento offer gorgeous backdrops to the special day. You can get married and have your papal audience on Wednesday in Rome, which a lot of couples still do. Malta is popular because it is English-speaking, there is no residency requirement, it has an attractive climate, direct flights and is groaning with churches. Spain and France are next, with Cyprus, New York and Austria also in the hunt. Florida, the Caribbean, Croatia, Prague, Greece and Turkey are all growing. Thomas Cook would bet that Cyprus and Lanzarote (Playa Blanca) are popular with their Irish customers. Vegas is regarded as glitzy (rather than quickie) and relatively free of bureaucracy with some gorgeous honeymoon landscapes in the vicinity.

outh Africa, St Lucia, Mauritius or Antigua (the most popular venues) can cost a lot less than at home, while Greece and Cyprus have a huge range of accommodation and getting married there is far less bureaucratic than other short haul destinations such as France and Spain. The Caribbean remains

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JANUARY 2017 PAGE 14

WEDDINGS & HONEYMOONS SPECIAL small marriage ceremony in Ireland followed by a larger confirmation ceremony abroad. Topflight have some enticing villa complexes in Tuscany, which also have churches on site. They say their most popular places are Malcesine in Lake Garda ( and Scaliageri Castle), Sirmione, and of course Sorrento and Positano. The bureaucracy of France, Italy and Spain has meant that the tiny island of Malta (you can fit two and half Maltas into Ireland’s smallest county, Louth) has been advancing rapidly up the aisle as the wedding destination of choice for hundreds of Irish couples each year.

one of the most popular long haul locations. A lot of European countries do not allow a beach wedding. In the Caribbean it has become the norm. Over the past few years Mauritius, Sri Lanka and the Seychelles have been growing. More unusual locations are now being chosen away from the beach, such as Lapland and Iceland. Organising an overseas wedding can involve a lot of bureaucracy, and not all countries perform wedding ceremonies that are legally recognised here. It is the couple’s responsibility to provide their operator with all the documentation, such as passports and birth certificates. Be certain to address the document question early — at least three months before the date — and remember that they will often need to obtain local documents on arrival. There will almost certainly be a fee for these.

et the documents wrong at any stage of the hrudle race in this area and they won’t be getting married, whatever their destination. Marry in St Lucia, for example, and the couple could need as many as nine different documents, more if either party has been divorced. Getting the wedding of your dreams is enabled by good planning. Requirements vary from country to country, but are broadly similar. For a church ceremony, several months’ notice is often necessary. Civil weddings can usually be arranged at shorter notice. Civil ceremonies are much easier to arrange than church weddings, but pretty much anything is possible if the couple has the patience and de-

termination. For most countries, the ground handler or wedding planner will require passport, original birth certificate, letters of freedom and proof of divorce or annulment, and a sworn affidavit, obtainable in Ireland, stating that both parties free to marry. Stress that clients should follow the ground handler instructions, not those of the couple’s solicitor, who may claim that certain documents are not required in certain situations. There may also be a certain length of time that the couple must reside in the country before a wedding can take place. Most famously, in France they

have to be resident for least forty days prior to the ceremony. France demands a syphilis certificate (issued by a doctor practicing in France certifying that you have been examined “en vue de mariage”) and a certificate of celibacy (stating that you are indeed single or divorced and are legally able to marry). According to French law, the Banns must be published at the mairie of the commune in which you will be married 10 days before the civil marriage takes place. You must prove residency for 30 days and a ten day stay after the ceremony. Spanish authorities may take 30 to 45 days to

approve a marriage application. Policies and procedures vary from region to region. Spanish law appears to permit foreigners who are not Spanish legal residents to marry in Spain. The different autonomous communities in Spain, however, interpret this law differently. Outside Madrid, it may be required that one party be a citizen or resident of Spain. In Italy, persons wishing to be married must appear with two witnesses and make a declaration of their intention to marry before the Ufficiale di Stato Civile (Civil Registrar) of the city or town where the

marriage is to take place.

ollowing the declaration it is usually necessary for banns, or marriage announcement, to be posted at the local comune (city hall) for two consecutive Sundays before the marriage occurs if one of the parties is Italian or if the Irish citizen is a resident of Italy. Banns can be waived by the Ufficiale di Stato Civile if neither party to the marriage is Italian and neither is residing in Italy. Local authorities require the presence of a translator if neither party speaks Italian. Many couples get round this by having a

alta has earned a steadily growing market share because of its easy bureaucracy residency stipulation of just three days, the close relationship between civil ceremony and church wedding, and the preponderance of churches and good hotels which offer a dazzling array of wedding options. There are nearly 400 churches in Malta, one at every turn of the road, three times as many churches as pubs, the Irish eye will quickly gather. The most prominent building along the landscape is the parish church. It has close cultural, economic and religious connections with Ireland: One of the oldest traditional wedding venue hotels, the Phoenician, is Irish-owned. More importantly, a wedding in Malta will cost an average of €4,500, compared with the average of €23,000 at home. Plates for the wedding meal can come in at €15 with some good options at €30. There are over 300 restaurants as well and everybody has decided to

JANUARY 2017 PAGE 15

WEDDINGS & HONEYMOONS SPECIAL chase the wedding business. A couple can get married in a vineyard (Ta Mena Estate in Gozo), a historic palace (Palazzo Parisio, Naxxar) or even underwater (a Chinese couple did it at the Azure Window in Dwejra, an impressive natural arch standing some twenty metres high). Keep a weather eye on those local church charges, which can mount very quickly. In Malta the average “donation” required by the church is €500. In contrast to France and Spain’s long ‘residency’ stipulation, Greece, Austria, the Czech Republic and Italy are all becoming feasible choices. Now you can get married anywhere in Austria and all the locals speak English. Austria offers some romantic settings

such as Zell am See. In summer you can get married on Lake Zell. In winter. they have the wonderful Sissi church right at 2,000 metres on top of the mountain. Bad Gastein has Gruner Baum hotel in the Hohe Tauern Na-

tional Park – with its own church. St. Johann and Westendorf have also had Irish weddings. pain, France and Italy will all need someone to translate documents which adds expense and bureaucratic hurdles.

There are no residency requirements for getting married in Thailand; however the required paperwork will normally take at least two working days to complete before the marriage can be registered. Most Caribbean islands

stipulate that couples must have been resident at least 24 hours before the wedding, though on Barbados couples may marry on the day that they arrive. On St Lucia, they must have been on the island for at least two working days in advance. In Mexico, blood tests for HIV are compulsory. Turkey is big news too. This is an example of how booking a Turkish wedding works with Sunway: A travel agent rings with an enquiry for the end of August for 20 adults and 10 children. First, Sunway check that the date the couple want is free with resort (as they only do one wedding a day on either Thursday or Friday). Sunway go back to the agent and confirm the date is available and give them a rough idea of

costs. Sunway also give them a link so they can see the costs for everything. The cost for a wedding reception for 20+10 is €1,300, including a four course meal, wedding cake, table and chair decorations and live music. The cost of arranging the civil marriage is €1,500. This is mandatory and includes arranging medicals and blood tests, obtaining necessary permission for the Turkish authorities, services of an official registrar, translation of documents, notary services and collection of documents etc. Then of course you have optional extras, like flowers, video, photos, hair and makeup, which depends on a persons budget: ■ Flowers €400 ■ Video €300

JANUARY 2017 PAGE 18

WEDDINGS & HONEYMOONS SPECIAL Couples should be wary of ‘free weddings’ tacked on to the cost of a honeymoon package. These can sometimes translate into a swift exchange of vows witnessed by gawking hotel guests with inexpensive cake and sweet fizzy wine.

■ Photos €400 ■ Hair & make-up €100 So in total for this wedding, the cost is €2,800 + €1,200 for optional extras.

nce Sunway provide the agent with the initial information and availability, the client (not the agent) is then told to contact our wedding planner in resort and they deal directly with each other. Sunway and the agent stay out of the wedding reception details. Sunway only arrange weddings in conjunction with their programme, so this gives the added advantage of offering fantastic group rates for the bride and grooms family wanting to travel. Sunway forwards sample wedding itineraries for each destination to the clients, this gives them an idea of the cost of a Wedding aboard and the link for what is required for Weddings aboard is also

Church weddings abroad with civil weddings at home are increasingly popular forwarded to the client. The bride and groom are put in direct contact with the wedding co-ordinator once they decide to go ahead with their wedding aboard, and flights and accommodation are held until their wedding is confirmed. Hair, makeup and the cost of the preparations have to be identified in advance. The cake will generally be a plain one-tier sponge, unless stated. Red carpets can be the biggest variable expense.

The price could turn out to be €200 as easily as it could be €100 with no discernible difference between the two, Couples may also be at the mercy of local florists for the bouquet. More importantly, they may not even be able to choose the precise location of their wedding: some hotels have one spot, and one spot only, where they allow ceremonies. Standards and reliability of photography and videos can vary: facilities and equipment abroad,

especially on smaller and more remote islands, are often poor, and in the Caribbean and elsewhere DVD formats are US-friendly and will not work in Irish machines (though they can be converted). It may also come as something of a shock for the bride to discover that hairdressing and other grooming required for the big day may be hard to come by or a long way from a hotel — and that standards may not be what she is used to.

he simplest approach is to buy an add-on to their holiday from a tour operator that has a specialist wedding department. The cost is determined by location and exotic extras. Options such as mariachi bands, helicopter rides and Balinese dancers send the price rocketing. Before choosing a hotel, check the number of weddings it carries out. Some resorts stage so many that newlyweds can find themselves sharing their special day with rather more people than they had intended. Couples who decide not to bring any relatives

LAS VEGAS UNVEILED

he licensing office in Las Vegas does not look very romantic: a square yellow slop-box of a building, plonked in the limbolands around the original Fremont Street city. It stays open 16 of the 24 hours, so customers who arrive for a 4am wedding (as Britney Spears did) will need to be there by

midnight. Getting your license costs $55. They don’t ask questions. There are no blood tests, no checks, no demands for divorce papers or proof that your bride isn’t your cousin. The marriage still isn’t legal until you go to a minister and get it stamped by a licensed minister — and that’s where the

fun begins. Vegas will offer any wedding experience you can think of. They do 112,000 marriages a year, churning them like slot machines plays, theming and re-theming the event so that virtually every wedding angle you can think of has already been requested: At Excalibur they will supply a wizard to marry you. At the Las Vegas Hilton you can get married on the bridge of the Star Trek Enterprise. At the Venetian they have a wedding gondola where you can speak

softly love while an All-American gondolier sings O Solo Mio. At Treasure Island they will do a completely over the top Viva Las Vegas marriage ceremony. You can buy a Weddings to Go package which will bring you out to the Grand Canyon or the Red River canyon to make your vows against spectacular desert landscapes. You can get married at the top of the Stratosphere, the tallest building east of the Rockies. If you want to go higher you can do it on a hot air balloon. There are lots of

drive through wedding chapels where you don’t have to get out of the car. And they will have every sort of chapel you can think of too. Big chapels, small chapels, labyrinthine buildings kitted out with a dozen chapels of various sizes, chapels that look like 1950s American diners, like forests and like caves. They all offer a similar style standard product with live internet broadcasts, flowers, photos, and occasionally champagne and occasionally cake – city health regulators are more fussy than wedding

license departments. An average of $330 will get you the flowers and video session. Some of the wedding providers will package your hotel and reception for you, getting over the local oddities like the all-present tipping culture. And you can have Elvis impersonators perform the ceremony. The most lookalike of the lookalike Elvises to be licensed as a minister, has retired. But you can always have a ‘short back and sides’ version.

may enjoy the camaraderie. But those who want to avoid the risk of a ceremony conducted as the next party is lined up on the lawn would be well advised to select a hotel where weddings are not the main trade. Watch out for the day pass feint. Friends who wish to stay in a less expensive hotel nearby may well have to buy a ‘day pass’ to the happy couple’s hotel for the ceremony. Take care, too, for many resorts are ‘couples-only’ and children are not welcome. Some companies offer discounts for friends, especially if there are 20 or more in the party. Some hotels may not be able to offer a post-wedding reception at all, creating further complications.

here are other potential downsides. In the most popular locations, brides in billowing white and over-hot grooms can find themselves caught in a traffic jam of twosomes waiting their turn at the wedding bower. As a rule, a wedding package includes sorting out the legal administration, organising the bouquet, buttonholes, cake and a champagne reception. Weddings abroad can be insured, although this is intended to supplement rather than replace travel insurance. Similarly, a ceremony overseas and a reception at home can be covered under one policy Blue Insurances’ Wedding Insurance starting from €39.99, covering cancellation and rearrangement, failure of suppliers, rings, gifts, bridal attire, personal liability and personal accident. Making one member of the agency team a wedding specialist is a wise move for anyone who operates in this field.

JANUARY 2017 PAGE 19

WEDDINGS & HONEYMOONS SPECIAL

THE RISING TIDE OF OCEAN WEDDINGS

eddings at sea are usually held in one of the main public rooms or in the ship’s own chapel, if it has one. Some ships also have small deck areas that can be set aside for al-fresco ceremonies. Weddings onboard cruises in the Caribbean are legally recognised by the Bahamas Marriage Act. The act allows for marriages in international waters, which is defined as outside the 12 mile limit of the territorial waters of any nation. The actual location of the ship when the marriage takes place is then recorded in the Marriage Record book of the Bahamas. With the re-registration of Celebrity Cruises’ seven ships in Malta, it is now possible for captains to perform legal wedding ceremonies at sea sailing through international waters. In accordance with Maltese law, couples should allow for at least eight weeks land-based lead time in order to process the required legal documents. Princess Cruises was the first cruise line to offer ship-based weddings conducted by the captain and it has since been followed by other lines including Celebrity Cruises and Azamara Club Cruises.

Couples booking 12 or more staterooms on a Royal Caribbean International sailing receive a complimentary ‘Romance at Sea’ nuptial package, inclusive of the ceremony performed by the captain, photography and other extras. As most meals on cruise ships are included in the price, the couple and their wedding party don’t need to pay pay extra for the traditional wedding breakfast, unless they opt for a speciality restaurant which carries a fee. Royal Caribbean has wedding chapels on some of its fleet, but couples can also opt to say their vows at on-board

attractions which, on its larger ships, include a surf simulator, rock-climbing wall and an on-board ice rink. With ceremonies starting at approximately €1,500, they are considerably less than land-based alternatives. All weddings performed onboard the ship must be in conjunction with a cruise. Upmarket specialist line Paul Gauguin, which cruises in the South Pacific, features a special ceremony that includes a Polynesian blessing while tall ship line Star Clippers will organise a sunset blessing for honeymooners aboard one of its masted sail-

ing yachts, conducted by the captain and attended by uniformed crew. Princess Cruises offers live “wedding cams” which allow absent parties to virtually attend the ceremony as live pictures can be beamed from the ship’s chapel and are accessible via its website. They can also marry on board a docked Celebrity Cruises ship in the following ports: Aruba, Baltimore, Barbados, Catalina Island, Cozumel, Fort Lauderdale, Cabo San Lucas, Civitavecchia (Rome), Grand Cayman, Hawaii, Juneau, Ketchikan, Key West, Livorno (Florence), Los Angeles, Miami, New Jersey, New York, Jamaica, San Diego, San Francisco, Santorini, Seattle, St. Lucia, St. Maarten, St. Thomas, San Juan, Tampa and Vancouver. General packages include the services of a local marriage official, a bottle of champagne, wedding cake, floral arrangements and a wedding certificate. Other cruise lines are not licensed to carry out seafaring weddings but can perform ceremonies when the ship is in port, either on-board the ship or ashore.

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Travel Department Travel Escapes Travel the Unknown Travel Trade Tickets and Tours Travelmood TrekAmerica Tunisian National Tourist Ofﬁce Turismo de Santiago de Compostela Turkish Airlines Turkish Culture and Tourism Ofﬁce Uganda Tourism Board Unique Japan Universal Orlando Resort Uniworld Boutique River Cruises Usit VARSEJ - Luxury Guided Tours In Italy Vermont Department Tourism Visit California Visit Flanders Visit Florida Visit Kentucky Association Visit North Carolina Visit St Petersburg/Clearwater Visit USA Ireland Visit Wexford Wendy Wu Tours WestJet Westport Plaza Hotel Westtoer Tourism White Mountains & Lakes Region of New Hampshire Woodlands Park Youghal Tourism

11/9/16 2:46 PM

JANUARY 2017 PAGE 22

ESCORTED TOURS

hen you lift your shoes out of the clinging soil that you realise how difficult it must have been to fight here. The chalky clay of the Somme doesn’t go away. When you try to clean it off, it actually multiplies as if it has been breeding on your shoe and goes everywhere. After two or three site visits you are now haunted by this stuff. Dig in for four years in a damp trench, it must have beyond what one could imagine. Further up to another salient there was another problem with the clingy marlish mud. Animals, carriages, men disappeared into it. In the museum at Passchendaele there is an artwork of hands grasping upwards towards the sky, one man’s commentary on how awful being caught in the mud must have been. With the mud and the chalk, the clean fields from which the armies have practised their rifle rounds of machine-gun rounds seems redundant. They were not trained for mud or chalk.

nd in Passchendaele the most depressing, most beautiful cemetery of them all, the burial site at Langemarck of 35,000 Germans shaded by oak trees. The Germans who died here were allocated the least land after the war. Unlike the English who allocated government money, and still do, to commemorating so-called military heroics as part of a culture that recruits and sends more conscripts, this time economic conscripts, to battlefields in countries they have invaded around the world, there was little money to maintain these graves. There are no “countless white crosses standing mute in the sand.” There are just dark graves, in

Grave matters Eoghan Corry joins an escorted tour of Flanders with GTI Tour guide Simon Louagie who conducted Irish travel trade and writers on a tour of the battlefields of Flanders pictured at the Francis Ledwidge monument at Boezinghe, some cases carrying tens of thousands, under the oak trees, something terrible and beautiful at the same time.

he Irish memorials, erected in the torrid time when the country was being partitioned, also fall into their identification packages. The Munsters were commemorated in the most dignified of the memorials in Ypres, a Celtic cross donated by the people of Cork who reminded readers they were the capital of Munster. Other landmarks carry Irish names, the Connacht cemetery and the Birr road, a highway that leads to hellfire cross outside Ypres. Hellfire got its name because it was a target of intense shelling through the history of the battles here. The Ulster Memorial was more declamatory, the larger a replica of Helen’s Tower Clandeboye, and its companion with four emblazoned battles commemorated on the plinth, none of them with anything to do with the First World War. Derry, Aughrim, Enniskillen and the Boyne is the mantra of this monument, a line from the Sash My Father Wore,

and a message to visitors that might as well say Catholics need not apply (the Ulster called the salient the Pope’s nose). An Armagh Catholic on the trip with us commented: “it’s as if we never existed. And they wonder why Northern Catholics do not wear the poppy.” Not far away the Irish Peace Park was put together in the wave of optimism that came from the 1990s peace process, a round tower with the door halfway up the front caused some puzzlement among the Belgians who were involved in erecting it, and when the attention span had moved on, left to maintain it. In one of those ironic peace outcomes the Imperial War Graves commission were the ones who nowadays get to mow the lawn. Connacht is gloriously misspelled, on one of the memorials here. When you’re putting up a memorial in stone, grammar should be important. The Ulsters abuse the redundant apostrophe, the Munster Memorial studiously get it right

surprise for those who trundle through a handful of the 130 cemeteries which carry the English war dead, and the colonials under English commands, about 72,000 of the bodies were never found. The paybook was used to identify the dead, not for commemorative purposes but so that their shilling a day could be stopped (and the 12/6 sent to the separas at home, £50,000 as being given out to the women of Dublin whose husbands were at the front at the time of then1916 Rising). The average soldier was 5’3 tall. Three square meals a day meant many of them outgrew their uniforms. They were gathered up and sent to the provost’s office, two large trucks putting them into pillowcases and putting them into the back of the truck, blood running from the pillows. Today the remains of the dead and the debris of war float occasionally to the topsoil and are likely to surface any time a farmer ploughs a field.

Lumps of shrapnel are pushed aside wherever there is a clearing. This is counted among the most polluted land on Earth. Every day three pieces of unexploded ordnance are found and have to be rendered safe. Of 2bn shells fired, a quarter did not explode and 60,000 are still in the region. Each year some people doing the job are killed, 600 have died since 1945. Occasionally the car will explode and vanish into thin air as if they were a 19-year-old from Belfast or Athy sent off on George V’s family business. The English put up poignant crosses, laid out in parade ground order, with “known only to God,” but when you see the scale of the conflict and the killing you wonder how does even God keep track.

he bloodiest of the killing fields of World War I were confined to two very small areas. Two salients, each about 30,000 acres, marked where armies managed a small bulge in the other’s territory

■ Eoghan Corry was hosted by GTI relating to the centenary of the Battle of the Somme. Ypres based four-day tours of the WW1 battlefields of Flanders and the Somme are on offer from €667pp. Telephone +353 1 843 4734

existed in Verdun and Ypres. Frenchmen fell by their tens of thousands at the first, men from England and their colonies at the second. The fronts here barely moved over the four year history of the war. In the lines of the Roger Waters song, as the general sat, the lines on the map moved from side to side.. This was where the worst of the butchery played out. Just after the last of the fallen had fallen the spin began. Commemorating them became part of the spin. A hundred years later it is chilling and almost ghoulish how commemorating the dead of that war has been turned into a new battle by some, a renewed fountain of triumphalism and nationalism. And, whisper the word, imperialism. The pageantry and bugle playing and wreath laying at the Menin Gate every night excludes the soldiers who fought on the other side, and, oddly, most of those who fought on the same side. It is a Britons-only event. One of the last surviving veterans of the First World War lived until 113 and only came to visit very late in his life. On his first night here, Harry Patch visited the German cemetery with Germany’s last survivor Erich Kästner. At Menin he insisted on dedicating the ceremony to the fallen Germans on the other side. Mud and chalk. That is how the world came to an end and hundreds of thousands perished. It is only when you get the feel of it under your shoes that you realise what the millions of reluctant conscripts went through in that bloody summer of 100 years ago at the frontline of a family spat between two quarreling cousins, the King of England and the Kaiser of Germany. A family squabble that killed eight million people.

NEW TOURS FOR 2017

European & Worldwide

Escorted tours for 2017 • • • • • •

Escorted Tours by air Fully Bonded Price Promise - No Surcharge Guarantee Excellent Tour Managers Typically four star standard Much more included - no selling of extra excursions on holiday

• • •

No discounting Agent friendly Full on-line booking capability

New tours We have some stunning new tours, all including return flights from Dublin, excellent accommodation and a wealth of tours and excursions included in the price.

Apulia, Lecce & Vieste Undiscovered Italy

Eight days half-board from only €1,299pp Selected departures from June to September 2017

Santiago, Bilbao and the highlights of Castile and León Eight days from €1,169pp

Selected departures June and September 2017

Barcelona & the highlights of Catalonia Seven days from only €1,049pp

Selected departures September 2017

Switzerland’s Bernese Oberland Eight days from only €1,999pp

Selected departures from July to September 2017

To request a brochure, check avalability or to make a booking

01 905 6300

Call: Visit: www.rivieratravel.ie Holiday organised by and subject to the booking conditions of Riviera Travel, Chase House, City Junction Business Park, Malahide Road, Northern Cross, Dublin D17 AK63. Fully licensed and bonded by CAR (T.O. 257)

JANUARY 2017 PAGE 24

ESCORTED TOURS

any clients always longed to travel but don’t know where to start. That’s where a tour operator in whose safe hands they can trust their precious holiday comes in. When it comes to visas, insurance and all that boring stuff, which can make or break a holiday, they not only need expert guidance – they MUST get it. Escorted tours are normally conducted by a tour director who takes care of all services from beginning to end of the tour. They normally include flights, hotels, transportation, transfers to the airport/hotel, most meals and sightseeing. They are typically conducted by motor coach. They can be fastpaced, with no more than two nights spent in each location, or more leisurely, with more time spent overnight at each locale. There is a difference between escorted, when guests are met at arrival and accompanied to departure, and a tour that leaves clients on their own with transfer reps and tours. Escorted tours are available on every continent in the world, from budget to luxury, leisurely to fast-paced. They range anywhere from 6 to 34 days.

he market is growing and changing. As with land based holiday destinations and tour operators they are beginning to see cruise ships as their biggest competition. Escorted tour operators in the Irish market include: ■ Colette Vacations ■ Contiki Holidays – youth market ■ Cosmos ■ Exodus ■ Explore ■ G Adventures (youth market) ■ Globus ■ GTI

Coach me if you can The ins and outs of escorted tours

How many seats and what pitch? ■ Insight Vacations ■ PAB ■ Riviera ■ Trafalgar tours ■ Travel Department Travel Department are the brand leader out of Ireland, having made a huge success out of the so-called grey market. CIE Tours International and Brendan Vacations are also Irish connected although they offer tours worldwide. Globus, Cosmos, Contiki, Insight, Riviera Travel, Trafalgar, Collette Vacations, GTI, Explore and Exodus are all big international brands. Contiki targets the younger traveller, up to age 35. Globus and Trafalgar operate around the same price points while Cosmos is a less expensive Globus brand. Intrepid and Imaginative Traveller target smaller and younger groups. Explore and Exodus have loyal travellers who have stuck with them, often since the companies were founded in the 1980s. Their demographic seems to have grown older with the companies. “Age appro-

priate sales,” is the phrase that is increasingly used by tour companies. emember that not all escorted tours are created equal. They are typically conducted by motorcoach but some have more adventurous options on part of the journey along the way. They can be fastpaced, with no more than two nights spent in each location, or more leisurely, with more time spent overnight at each locale. It is not just about itineraries. Some include flights, hotels, transportation, transfers to the airport/hotel, most meals and sightseeing. Others exclude some of the key items. Tours will sometimes vary the standard of hotels, with three stars in the rural parts and five star in the city. It can be a scramble for hotels on the most popular itineraries. Around Lake Garda, Como and Maggiore there are six or seven hotels around each lake to choose from, with the tour operators of-

fering strikingly similar itineraries Most escorting touring companies have 52-seater coaches. Leg room on board, the use of city centre hotels versus suburban hotels, functional extras such as free wifi and charge points and the itineraries are all differentiators. Some pack their buses, some deal with smaller groups of less than twenty. Some switch between the two, while some dealing with small groups use local transport rather than a chartered coach. Some may stay in one city for several nights while taking day trips through the local countryside, or use a leisurely itinerary that may cover a few different cities in one area of the world. Then there are fastpaced tours that give you a great overview of many countries in Europe, several states in the USA or many regions of Australia. Accommodation can vary significantly, and is often at local guesthouses and pensions. In general,

most escorted tour companies choose hotels in suburbs as opposed to city centre locations as it keep the price point lower. Sometimes you’ll have an amazing room, other times you’ll be in a small room sharing a bath down the hall. On many escorted tours only a small number of meals might be included and these can be group meals. Most escorted touring company’s prices do not include excursions and entries to tourist sights/ attractions and guests are asked while on tour by the Tour Guides/Managers to pay for this, so it is an additional cost on top of the price paid for the tour.

here is a difference in terms of what is offered between brands who are targeting the traditional escorted tour clients and the youth market. The perception of escorted tours is beginning to change amongst the younger generation, with

the likes of Contiki and G Adventures becoming stronger in the Irish market place. Both companies offer escorted group travel to the youth market, with Contiki specifically targeting young travellers between 18-35 only while G Adventures also caters for older more adventurous traveller and families also. Escorted travel is the perfect way for young solo individuals to travel who are seeking the company of like-minded people and, of course, the security of travelling with others in an organised group. In some cases young travellers will look to their travel agent for advice on solo travelling and they are presented with group holiday travel, such as Contiki. Due to the nature of it being a youth product one can expect the product offering to be different to that of Insight Vacations, Trafalgar, Travel Department who would be more appealing to more mature age categories. Contiki’s trips tend to be more high energy (with plenty of outdoor activities on offer), sociable and geared towards making friends. Accommodation on offer ranges from camping to hostels and hotels. There are plenty of room share options, so this eliminates single room supplements, and of course younger travellers tend to have less problems with sharing rooms than more mature travellers.

xplore escorted tours launched 80 new tours its 2014/15 collection with over 80 new tours on offer in destinations including Guinea Bissau in West Africa, Taiwan and Colombia’s Lost City, in addition to a new range of ‘food and drink’ tours.

JANUARY 2017 PAGE 25

ESCORTED TOURS

nsight offers 40-seater coaches, others tend to have 52 seats. Insight purchases brand new top of the range coaches and reconfigures them to 40-seater coaches thus offering business class legroom. All coaches have free Wi-Fi and charge points for phones and iPads. Each coach is in operation for only five years. They say their premium status comes from hotels, food inclusions, VIP entries to sites, more inclusions and seat pitch. They sit at the 4/5 star level. Insight say their hotels are hand-picked in the more desirable locations. “On city tours the hotels are always in the city centre and not in the suburbs,” Sharon Jordan says. “Insight’s signature hotels which are included on most tours

All our holidays include flights, professional English speaking guides, executive coach transfers, great hotel accommodation and fascinating guided excursions.

Death Valley USA are distinctive properties, for example the Kolbe in Rome, a luxury converted 15th century convent within walking distance of the Roman

Forum.” he GTI team in Ireland is headed up by Derek Keogh. Travel Extra experienced their level of

expertise on a battlefields tour of Flanders. Sample itineraries for 2017 include Thailand and Laos,, Abu Dhabi, Vietnam and Cambodia

Myanmar, and charms of Croatia: Krk Island, Plitvice Lakes and the Istrian Peninsula and June 18 25, Sept 24 - Oct 1, Oct 8 - 15 from €1099pp.

iviera Travel staff undergo resort-based annual training and build knowledge so they can advise about the holiday based on their own experience. Their Tour Managers have a tradition of long service, 16 of them now for over twenty years and that staff are selected for organisational ability. knowledge and are multilingual. Riviera say that since their inception 29 years ago, they’ve never levied a surcharge – even when currency and fuel mitigate against them.

MAGIC isn’t imaginary

It’s just very well planned

VACATIONS REIMAGINED AUTHENTIC DISCOVERIES . SIGNATURE HOTELS . REGIONAL FLAVOURS FOR MORE INFORMATION CALL YOUR TRAVEL AGENT OR 1 800 989 898

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JANUARY 2017 PAGE 26

AFLOAT ROYAL Caribbean International is to operate 16 Sunday charter rotations with City Jet next summer from Belfast City Airport to Barcelona for Freedom of the Seas. The charter flight will be running from May 7 until August 20. MSC Cruises have recruited Colin Rillie, formerly of Royal caribbean to their sales team. They already have recruited Steve Wiulliams, familiar to many Irish agents, and appointed Thomas Cook regional manager Andrea Stafford as new head of retail ROYAL Caribbean’s three Oasis-class

ships, the largest cruise ships in the world, Oasis of the Seas, Allure of the Seas and the line’s newest ship, Harmony of the Seas, met for the first time off Fort Lauderdale.

HOLLAND America launched a new room service menu that includes a free continental breakfast and paid-for a la carte breakfast, as well sample dishes from various specialty restaurants on board. Complimentary start-ers, sandwiches, entrees and desserts will continue to be offered around the clock. PRINCESS Cruises announced a part-

nership with Michelin Star Chef Em-manuel Renaut on board Majestic Princess.

FRED OLSEN’s Black Watch is to

be refurbished with TVs, minibars and safes in the cabins and refreshed public spaces. The 44-year-old ship was damaged by fire last July.

ROYAL Caribbean scaled back its refurb of Adventure of the Seas. Royal Caribbean Cruises unveiled a partnership with The Market Square Garden Company to provide the cruise line with marketing platforms in the renovated Madison Square Garden.

CRYSTAL Cruises are to renovate Serenity and Symphony once again

DISNEY Cruise Line expanded its Royal Court Royal Tea to all ships in the fleet. UNIWORLD Boutique River Cruise

Collection has teamed up with Insight Va-cations and Luxury Gold, two other companies within its parent company, The Travel Corporation, to offer eight European itineraries that combined land tours with cruises including two new trips for 2017.

NCL

Hull art for Norwegian Bliss features a humpback whale and her calf, along with other sea animals. The ship is being custom-built for Alaska itineraries and set to debut spring 2018.

INTERPOL general assembly voted to

give Carnival Corp access to the organisations’ database of lost and stolen travel documents, the first for a cruise line.

HARMONY The World’s biggest cruise ship, Harmony of the Seas, was christened in Fort Lauderdale. HOLLAND America’s Koningsdam arrived in the USA.

FRED OLSEN unveiled a revamped trade website

Celebrity Silhouette in Dublin

Celebrity-bration

Dublin to homeport first major cruise line mini season

elebrity Cruise Line will have full details of their five Solstice Class cruise ship rotations from Dublin port in April May and June 2018 by the beginning of December, but the decision to board 14,000 cruise passengers, of which 80pc will arrive to board from outside the country, is a game changer for the port. Airport access is among the key factors in the decision, Dublin has more connectivity than Southampton, with 140 weekly flights to North America and connections to 180 cities. While Southamnpton has connections to eight British cities and Heathrow just six, Dublin has 18 The Dublin cruise terminal will not be ready until 2021, by which time Brexit may have triggered further relocations of major cruise ships. For five sailings commencing in late April, throughout May and until the end of June 2018, one of Celebrity Cruises’ 2,800+ guest Solstice-class ships will offer cruises throughout northern Europe from Dublin enabling 14,000 people to start their cruise holiday from Dublin on a Celebrity Cruises ship in 2018. Further details will be announced later this year. Celebrity Cruises will have five ships in Europe for 2017-2018, Celebrity Reflection, Celebrity Equinox, Celebrity Constellation, Celebrity Eclipse and Celebrity Silhouette Ce-

lebrity Cruises already features Dublin and other ports throughout Ireland in its European deployment, including an overnight in July 2017. This is the most significant increase in its investment into Ireland in the history of the global business. Dublin Port hosted 180,000 cruise visitors from 100 cruise ship calls In 2016, of which four were cruise ship turnarounds where the ship begins its sailing and guests embark. The port uses a €6m economic impact figure based on Southampton Cruise Tourism report 2004 which states that each passenger that joins a cruise ship via the Port of Southampton generates £380 to the local economy. £380 spend per head of 2,800+ guests for five turnarounds equates to £5,320,000 or €5,852,000 based on exchange rate of £1 to €1.1 Celebrity Cruises has a fleet of 12 ships with two new ships on order, scheduled to join the fleet in 2018 and 2020, and a further two ships on option. The cruise line is part of Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd, the second large cruise business in the world. Celebrity Cruises’ Solstice-class of ships are the newest in its fleet, all introduced between 2008 and 2012. In addition to luxury guest accommodation, designer boutiques, extensive bars and restaurants, they also feature a real grass lawn on the top deck. With extensive awards particu-

larly for its food and wine, Celebrity Cruises boasts the largest and rarest collection of wine at sea and a host of exclusive restaurants on-board all overseen by a Michelin-starred executive chef. Jo Rzymowska said “Celebrity Cruises has enjoyed significant support from our travel agent partners and guests throughout Ireland for many years. Now we are saying thank you by basing one of the flagships of our fleet in Dublin for a mini season during early summer 2018. We know that our guests from around the world, and in Ireland, will love the warm welcome they receive when starting a holiday in Dublin. Calling Dublin home in 2018 is a major development to our European deployment. We couldn’t be more excited. Thank you to Dublin Port for their support.” Pat Ward of Dublin Port said: “It has been a clear ambition of Dublin Port to attract a cruise line to offer our great city as a homeport. Today, that ambition is realised and Celebrity Cruises will be an important step-change in our history. The opportunities that this new investment will bring are extensive. We look forward to maximising this new platform for growth and welcoming yet more cruise ships and holidaymakers to Dublin for the first time.”

JANUARY 2017 PAGE 27

Meravigilia on way MSC to bring giant flagship to Dublin in 2018

SC are to bring their flagship, the newly constructed Meraviglia, to Cork and Dublin in 2018. Speaking to Travel Extra on board MSC Fantasia in Genoa, London based MSC regional manager Antonio Paradiso said Magnifica wil be based in Southampton from April until October 2018 and might figure in their plans for a mini season in Dublin. “I am very pleased that the port of Dublin is investing more efforts in developing the infrastructure. We will have MSC Meraviglia to showcase our product in Ireland, our new flagship both in Cork and Dublin in 2018 “ “We have spent two months unique Erica Oglesby, Antonio Paradiso and Rebecca Kelly of MSC itineraries for the English audiences. bound, some to the Norwegian fjords, Antonio said Brexit is not a worry. I invited all of my top agents and we we are also creating 14 night itiner- “Since Brexit we have been change in sat for six hours and I was collecting aries to include Spain booking patterns. I actually see that feedback from and Portugal.” as an opportunity. The English audiMEET MERAVIGLIA the travel agents. “We have reduced ence is booking further in advance. “With Magnifica 167,600 tonnes the number of days They don’t know what is happening we wil be offer- 4,500 passengers of sea and are striv- in two years so they are booking five ing seven nights, Floatout Sept 2016 ing to provide for our cruises a year instead of two cruises eleven nights, and Launch April 2017 customers a different a year.” 14 nights south- 9th largest in world port.” bound and north-

AFLOAT ROYAL Caribbean has named Brittany Affolter, a manag-er with Teach for America, as godmother of Harmony of the Seas, CARNIVAL London CEO, David Noyes (he of the Heathrow T5 debacle) says the P&O Cruises 5,200-passenger ship due in 2020 will have a clear sky dome, a pool with a retractable stage and a half-mile promenade deck complete with restaurants and bars. SAGA Take note those of you who get

seasick- Saga Cruises is offering first-time passengers flights home early and a refund of the fare, if they don’t enjoy their cruise.

DISNEY Cruise Line has expanded its Royal Court Royal Tea, a tea party with Disney princesses, to all ships in the fleet.

SILVERSEA introduced free business class flights on select Mediterranean voyages booked before 3 December 2016 and with every 2016 and 2017 booking agents receive a sweet treat from Hotel Chocolat.

MSC added UNESCO-protected Saranda in Albania to its Eastern Medi-terranean itineraries from April 2017. MSC Fantasia will replace MSC Or-chestra in the Antilles and the South Caribbean in November 2017. Alter-native calls were scheduled instead of Ocean Cay Marine Reserve which has been delayed until October 2018. ROYAL CARIBBEAN said

Icon class vessels to be delivered in the second quarters of 2022 and 2024 will be fuelled by LNG. The cruise line will begin testing fuel cell technology on Oasis-class in 2017.

RIVIERA MS Thomas Hardy, one of four new 5 Star All Suite Ships to be launched next year by Riviera River Cruises, is undergoing sea-trials. SCENIC became the first cruise line

to offer a river cruising travel guaran-tee for every guest at no extra charge

UNIWORLD Boutique River Cruise

Collection has joined with Insight Va-cations and Luxury Gold (all companies within the same parent compa-ny, The Travel Corporation) to offer eight European itineraries, two of which are new, with both land tours and cruises for 2017.

CLIA Europe General Assembly elected Kyriakos Anastassiadis, CEO of Celestyal Cruises, as the next CLIA Europe chair.

HURTIGRUTEN’s new hy-

MSC Meraviglia

AMBITIOUS PLAN FOR FOYNES

he Port of Foynes is to be upgraded under a new Government initiative to fcreat an Entrepot shipping hub. The project is being proposed by Denis Naughten, Minister for Communications, Climate Change and Natural Resources, who

told a Sunday newspaper there is a “huge opportunity” to develop the port into a hub for shipping in Europe and attract investment for Limerick. “Rotterdam is becoming hugely congested as the main port of Europe and there is potential to

develop on the western seaboard a major port at Foynes that would act as a transit point for freight to and from North America,” “My suggestion is to do what we have done for passengers and have pre-clearance for large freight out of Foynes into the United

States. “Freight would come into Foynes, get scanned there, get certified and can land in New York and it is the same as an internal shipment,” he added.

brid-powered expedition cruise ships are to be named Roald Amundsen and Fridtjof Nansen. South Korea tested visa-free entry for all cruise passengers

VIRGIN VOYAGES Richard Branson said his cruise ship line would be called Virgin Voyages (the word cruise is awful) and ordered three 2,700 pax ships.

THOMSON Cruises will have three

ships in the Caribbean for the first time next year including its new ship TUI Discovery 2 that will join the fleet in May

JANUARY 2017 PAGE 28

THE FLYING COLUMN

Aviation with Gerry O’Hare

WOW air has expanded to Pittsburgh

adding to transatlantic services to Montreal, Washington DC, Toronto, Boston, New York Los Angeles, San Francisco and Miami. Flying time from Keflavik will be six and a half hours, departing on Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays and Sundays.

RYANAIR intends to appeal a ruling by the European Commission that it must pay back €2m in state aid subsidies it received from Klagenfurt airport in Austria.

TOPFLIGHT and Crystal are to share 12 Aer Lingus Saturday charters from Belfast City Airport to Salzburg starting Christmas Eve and running until March 11th.

EIRTECH aviation services was granted A340, 757 and Embraer 170/190 CAMO approvals EMIRATES now has five daily A380s

to New Zealand.

ETIHAD and Jet Airways added three

new destinations to bring its Indian network to 18 cities with 28 additional flights a week between Abu Dhabi and India.

FEEDER Kenny Jacobs told Reuters that Ryanair aims for a deal on long-haul feeder flights in 2017 TAMPA

International Airport said it hopes to add a Dublin route through incentive programme..

AIR FRANCE KLM reported re-

duced profits in the wake of militant attacks.

QANTAS Alan Joyce hinted Qantas might fly non stop to Europe.

AER LINGUS may be getting 11

A321 NEO plus additional A333 instead of the A350. The latest A350 production line does not show any aircraft destined for Aer Lingus, which had nine on the order book, three each in 2018, 2019 and 2020.

LUFTHANSA is to operate a weekly Saturday flight from Shannon to Frankfurt Main, from April 29 to October 28.

ACROPOLIS Aviation luxury air charter company sent its cabin crew to Paul Flynn’s g cookery school, Tannery in Dungarvan. The course covered the art of plate and platter presentation, food pairing, oven management and seasonal menu ideas. US

airlines collectively reported approximately $18.3bn in pre-tax profit for the first nine months of 2016, down 2.1pc from $18.7bn over the same period in 2015, according to Airlines for America

HORSELEAP Patrick Little, the

Stephen Kavanagh CEO of Aer LIngus and Willie Walsh CEO of IAG

Miami nice for EI

Aer Lingus Miami 3w start of new expansion

er Lingus long anticipated service between Dublin and Miami will commence 3w in September 2017. Miami will be served by an A330300 with 23:243 configuration. EI141 will leave Dublin at 1500 and land in Miami 19.15 and EI140 leave Miami 2110 to land 1035the following morning. Long haul capacity will be boosted by 22pc to 2.5m seats next year. Dublin-Los Angeles will also go to a daily service for the summer. There will be extra flights on existing routes to Chicago and Orlando to Dublin on the foot of a year of growth as part of IAG. Aer Lingus will fly to Miami three times a week from next September, with the flights scheduled to feed into cruise ship departures from the city. Dublin to Chicago will operate twice daily during summer 2017, Dublin-Orlando will operate four

Worth, San Diego, San Jose, Seattle, and Tampa. Having increased New York capacity with the A330 operation to Newark, the third early morning JFK flight and the corresponding daytime eastbound flight are not scheduled in the 2017 programme, tied to the wetlease on Omni International B767 which operated Shannon-Boston, releasing a B757 for the early Dublin-JFK flights. Aer Lingus will also launch services to Porto in Portugal, and Split in Croatia. CEO Stephen Kavanagh said the airline is also increasing its capacity on the Dublin-Heathrow route, using slots at the airport that Virgin handed back to British Airways in 2013 when BA bought BMI. Virgin used them on domestic English services, operated on its behalf by Aer Lingus, but the routes were not profitable.

10 AIRPORTS GET PRE-CLEARANCE

dinburgh, Keflavík, Rome-Fiumicino, Bogotá, Buenos Aires, Osaka-Kansai, Mexico City, Rio de JaIRELANDIA Aviation, the low-cost neiro, São Paulo and Saint carrier group led by Declan Ryan, is to expand Martin/Sint Maarten) have operations in South America with the launch of been accepted to begin the a new airline in Peru. approval process for US

man behind the ambitious plan to build an international airport in the Horseleap/ Tubber area says that the project is “almost ready to go to the next stage”.

times a week. The growth means Aer lIngus offers its largest ever transatlantic schedule with 2.5m seats in the market for 2017, 21pc up on 2016 with the number of routes growing from 10 to 13. Dublin will have 28 North American routes as a result of the addition of Miami, the same as Keflavik although Keflavik has more city pairs. The service will enable Aer Lingus passengers to connect via American Airlines services to destinations in the Caribbean, Latin and South America. Aer Lingus will have three more A330s athan for summer 2016, including two A330-300s delivered late last summer, EI-FNG and EI-FNH, and one due next summer. A further A330-300 will be delivered later in 2017. With an eye to further expansion in 2018 the airline has been in negotiation with aa dozen airports in the USA including Dallas Fort

preclearance over the next two years . This will give thm similar status tp Dublin and Shannon, if agreements are reached. Milan-Malpensa, Heathrow and Manchester were previously identified as priority airports in May

2015. The Swedish and US governments have signed a bilateral agreement to introduce US border controls at Stockholm Arlanda and they are expected to be available by in the summer of 2018.

In 2015, about 1.1m passengers flew between Sweden and the US, with more than 600,000 passengers on non-stop flights from Arlanda.

JANUARY 2017 PAGE 29

THE FLYING COLUMN

Aviation with Gerry O’Hare

Takeover time

Cityjet expands in other markets as it takes over Stobart

at Byrne said the takeover of Stobart by Cityjet would be completed by mid November, “all going well.” Speaking to Travel Extra on the margins of the CAPA aviation summit in Amsterdam he said that it had yet to be decided if the two airlines would remain separate entities after the takeover. Cityjet took possession of their third SSJ100 at end October EI-FWC. It will go to an airshow in China and will return to Dublin on November 8. aviation summit. An interesting point was raised by Pat Byrne on the panel discussion about Bexit when he worried that aviation could turn into a pawn in a bigger game. He invoked the memory of the Lisbon Treaty and the intense pressure that the Irish electorate were put under after rejecting its initial form

Pat Byrne at CAPA summit in Amsterdam

RYANAIR announced its 85th base at Frankfurt with 2 based aircraft and 4 new routes to Alicante, Faro, Malaga and Palma, all daily, from Mar 2017. The slots may be from former airBerlin route.

KLM celebrated the launch of their twicedaily soon-to-be four daily Embraer service to Amsterdam at and evnet in Dublin. KLM are the third carrier on the Amsterdam route and the only one to offer business class as well as premium economy. More importantly connecting passengers using the KLM service can check-in online for both legs of their journey, a privilege denied them until now. There are 65,000 KLM frequent fliers in Ireland and he said they were looking forward to what he called blue to blue connections which would enable online check-in in advance of flying and the option of business class and premium economy on the Dublin Amsterdam leg of their journey. He said 70pc of the passengers on Dublin Amsterdam service would be connecting passengers and 60-65pc business driven. The codeshare with Aer Lingus on Cork-Amsterdam will remain throughout 2017, and on two Aer Lingus flights Dublin-Amsterdam until KLM goes four daily in March RYANAIR reported 10.9m passengers in Oct 16 (+13pc on Oct 15 and more than in Sep 16) at a seat factor of 95pc, up one.

Dublin to Toronto Year-round flights increasing to 9 SERVICES WEEKLY in peak summer season

Flights conveniently timed to connect with Air Canada’s extensive network serving 60 Canadian and 52 US destinations.

For more information please contact us at 01 6793958 or aircanada@premair.ie

26700 AC TORONTO - TRAVEL EXTRA APRIL 16 HPH.indd 1

02/03/2016 21:46

JANUARY 2017 PAGE 30

THE FLYING COLUMN

Aviation with Gerry O’Hare

DRONES Ralph James, IAA Director

of Safety Regulation, said that more than 6,000 drones have been registered since that became mandatory last December. The authority is expecting another “surge” in drone purchases this Christmas. Last December, Mr James said, retailer Harvey Norman stocked 15,000 machines for the Christmas market.

OCTOBER was the third busiest month in the history of Ryanair with traffic up 13pc to 10.9m customers. Ryanair launched 43 routes this week including Dublin-Hamburg 5w, adding Oslo Gardermoen to London Stansted and Vilnius and a 2,451km Liverpool to Marrakech route. They included the launch of six new routes in a four-day period from Belfast International Airport, to Krakow on Sunday, Wroclaw, Lanzarote and Tenerife on Monday and Warsaw and Gdansk on Wednesday. Ryanair added a fifth daily return from Belfast to Gatwick.

Willie Walsh CEO of IAG and Stephen Kavanagh CEO of Aer Lingus

FLYBE Saad Hammad departed as CEO of Flybe suddenly, having turned the airline around since taking over in 2013.

WTM Willie Walsh of IAG and Tim

Clarke of Emirates spoke at the WTM aviation forum where the merits of the A380 were explored, Willie declaring provocatively (again) he can make a case for an A380 for Aer Lingus. He said global airline alliances will not be around 20 years from now and may not be 10 years from now, and when I ran Aer Lingus I never listened to politicians because you can’t run an airline from a political perspective.

Lingus plans

American Airlines opposition will delay Oneworld

er Lingus’s inclusion in Oneworld transatlantic business alliance has been stalled by American Airlines. Aer Lingus is due to begin co-operation with American Airlines which is a member of the Oneworld alliance and has a joint-venture with THE EU issued a riposte to Arlene BA, Iberia and Finnair. Foster’s claim that Brussels blocked the Whilst Aer Lingus has regulatory Belfast-Newark air service subsidy. An EU approval to be a member of this spokeswoman said “to be clear, the European joint-venture, the latest comments Commission received a complaint alleging that from IAG CEO Willie Walsh are that the measure was in breach of EU rules, which it will first stop short of joining and it looked into, but we did not take any deciwill initially only code-share with sion on the matter. The authorities and United American Airlines. Airlines have themselves decided to end their While Aer Lingus and American arrangement.” Belfast’s only trans-Atlantic Airlines will put their flight numbers service, United’s Newark service, is to be on each other’s flights, they will not scrapped in January after the EU rejected a co-ordinate schedules or share rev£9m Stormont subsidy to preserve the route. enues. Stormont was paying £160 for every return BA and Aer Lingus have not conticket on the route.

TURKISH Airlines has parked 30 air-

craft for winter and cancelled flights to 17 and 5 domestic destinations, due to a decreasing number of passengers amid economic contractions and recent militant attacks. 12 Airbus A330-200 aircrafts are parked in Antalya and 4 Airbus A320 planes are in Ankara’s Esenboga Airport. Turkish Airlines currently has 298 aircraft in its fleet. Cancelled international destinations were Batna and Tlemcen in Algeria, Alborg in Denmark, Bordeaux in France, Karlsruhe-Baden, Freidrichshafen and Münster in Germany, Kermanshah in Iran, Genoa and Pisa in Italy, Aqaba in Jordan, Osh in Kyrgyzstan, Rotterdam in the Netherlands, Kano in Nigeria, al-Qassim in Saudi Arabia, Khujand in Tajikistan and Ivano-Frankivsk in Ukraine. Cancelled domestic destinations were Eskişehir, Tokat, Edremit, Uşak and Siirt.

solidated their schedule on overlapping routes, specifically London to Dublin and Belfast. … However, there are sensitivities around Aer Lingus’ portfolio of London Heathrow slots as it has to provide assurances that these would not be sold or transferred. Aer Lingus has maintained its commercial relationships with non-Oneworld alliance airlines United Airlines, JetBlue, KLM, Etihad and Virgin Atlantic. It is likely that most of these relationships will continue. IAG CFO Enrique Dupuy de Lôme told the of the IAG Q3 results Presentation conference call: “on the transatlantic joint business, it is not a profit share. It is based on revenue performance rather than overall profit performance. The American carriers have a greater

challenge if you like with the US dollar cost base competing on the transatlantic.” BA Chairman and CEO Alex Cruz said: In terms of Aer Lingus performance with the joint venture that is still the issue of discussion between the parties, but it is progressing very well. American Airlines are beginning to understand the value that Aer Lingus brings as part of their joint venture and recognise that in what might be called standard terms might be the right thing for Aer Lingus or for the joint venture. We are looking at how, not just IAG, but how our joint business on the Transatlantic best utilise the Aer Lingus brand, the Aer Lingus cost base, the Aer Lingus network.

AER LINGUS PASSENGERS UP 9PC

er Lingus told its investors that it had recorded “excellent returns” in the last four quarters. Capacity growth was 8pc with passenger traffic up 9pc and an improved short-haul load factor. ASK annual growth was 7.8pc against an 8pc target. The fleet will grow from 51 to 59 by 2020. Margin development from unit revenue is seen as negative but protected by AerClub and partner relationships; It says IAG supported

accelerated capacity growth. Between 2014 Q4 and 2016 Q3, passenger unit revenue declined by 2-3pc. Unit cost is down almost 15pc and non-fuel unit cost down about 8pc. The airline described a “new focus” with the mission statement “to be the leading value carrier across the North Atlantic, enabled by a profitable and sustainable short-haul network, supported by a guest focused, brand and digitally enabled value proposition, delivering above average

returns on invested capital for our IAG shareholders.” They said it would be a Demand Led Value proposition centred on cost, product and service with an operating model that is simple by design and leveraging Dublin as a Gateway. There would be no cross-subsidisation between transatlantic and European networks. The demand pipeline would be managed to provide a position of demand greater than supply. Transatlantic revenue per ASK

by cabin, would be benchmarked against the legacy peer group coupled with cost leadership and leveraged retail opportunity. The airline will seek double digit efficient A330 growth, enabling network bread”th from new or restarted routes, expanded partner cooperation and single-aisle aircraft the A321LR. On short-haul the airline wishes to command a fare “premium while maintaining cost proximity with low cost rivals,.”

JANUARY 2017 PAGE 31

THE FLYING COLUMN

Aviation with Gerry O’Hare RYANAIR reported 10.9m passengers in Oct 16 (+13pc on Oct 15 and more than in Sep 16) at a seat factor of 95pc, up 1 point. Passengers for the past 12 months were 114.4m, up 16pc.

AVIOS IAG say Aer Lingus is to join Avios in 2016 Q4 with Vueling to join in 2017. AER LINGUS passenger traffic

(RPK) in Oct was 12.9pc up on Oct 15 with a passenger load factor of 82.2pc, down two percentage points

Robin Kiely, Michael O’Leary and Kenny Jacobs of Ryanair

Ryanair rides high Passenger forecast raised to 119m for the year

yanair now expect to carry just over 119m customers in 2017. The airline raised their long term traffic forecast by over 10pc from 180m to 200m customers by March 2024. Currently the largest airlines in the world by passengers carried are American (147m), Southwest (144m) and Delta (139m). This stronger growth allows it to raise its long term traffic forecast by over 10pc from 180m to over 200m customers a year by Mar 24. The projection requires extra aircraft with a big change in 2018, from the current 386, 2018: 427 (+26), 2019: 448 (+29), 2020: 481 (+31), 2021: 516 (+44), 2022 540 (+33), 2023: 575 (+40), 2024: 585 (+39). The extra aircraft will come from renewal of some leases and deferring sale of owned aircraft. In the questions and answer session, it was said no additional orders were needed. The airline reported that unit costs also fell by 10pc, they were down 5pc when fuel was excluded. The airline raised their medium term guidance for ancillary sales

from 20pc to 30pc of revenues, over the next four years to March 2020. Their first half statement indicates that for the first time Ryanair will operate to a majority of primary (105) rather than secondary (95) airports by the end of 2016. The summer 2017 schedule was launched two weeks earlier than last year sees 80 new routes and a new two aircraft base at Frankfurt am Main airport to open in late March. Automatic check in and a wider choice of accommodation on the Ryanair Rooms platform is on the cards for the coming months. Ryanair has already made membership of “My Ryanair” compulsory for bookings in the Irish market and this will be extended to other markets. The airline says 93pc of all customers are now booking directly on Ryanair.com and they expect membership of “My Ryanair” will significantly increase from 15m in Sept to 25m by end-2017. Ryanair.com recently overtook Southwest Airlines to become the world’s largest airline website.

Ryanair Rooms was soft launched in October. Their mobile app became the 8th largest travel app in the English market by usage in September 2016, ahead of easyJet (No. 20) and BA (No. 37). Ryanair reports stronger forward bookings for 2016. In July they became the first European airline to carry over 11m international customers in a calendar month since the heyday of Aeroflot. They say the uptake of Business Plus and Leisure Plus products is rising. Ryanair say that 12pc traffic growth to 65m customers was spread widely across Europe as the airline opened 73 new routes and 6 new bases. This winter they take delivery of 31 new B737-800s and will open six more bases in Bucharest, Bournemouth, Hamburg, Nuremberg, Prague and Vilnius. The base in Berlin will grow from 5 to 9 aircraft, while Luxemburg will become their 33rd served country in November.

CAR LIMITS DUBLIN TRAFFIC

he Commission for Aviation Regulation received summer 2017 recommendations from Dublin Airport for small increases in the number of slots by hour

available at Dublin Airport and this was supported by the IAA. These were opposed by Aer Lingus, Ryanair and IAG on the grounds of increased delays due

to traffic congestion. The CAR has decided to leave the number of slots unchanged for summer 2017 but to undertake a full capacity assessment for subsequent periods. Aer Lingus

notes that overall capacity sought for summer 2017 shows lower levels than summer 2016.

IAG will introduce high speed inflight Wi-Fi across its airlines’ short-haul fleets having reached agreement with Inmarsat to be the launch customer of its next generation European air to ground connectivity. In total 341 short-haul aircraft will be fitted with Inmarsat’s next generation connectivity services to provide a 4G broadband network, giving customers the internet access they expect on the ground while in the air. These include 132 British Airways, 125 Vueling, 45 Iberia and 39 Aer Lingus A320 family aircraft. The first short-haul aircraft equipped with Wi-Fi connectivity – a British Airways A321- will be in service next summer. Aer Lingus, Iberia and Vueling aircraft will follow later in 2017. By 2019, 90pc of IAG airlines’ fleets will be fitted with high quality connectivity.

RYANAIR announced a new 2 aircraft base at Vilnius for summer 17 with 4 new routes to Belin (3 pw), Leeds ( 2pw), Malta (1 pw) and Oslo (daily), 18 routes in total, 775,000 annual passengers. It will continue to operate 2 Kaunas-based aircraft, with 12 routes and 600,000 passengers and will add a 2nd route at Palanga (to Glasgow) where it will have 60,000 passengers, more than 1.4m passengers in all through Lithuanian airports. WOW

announced 4w services from Cork to Kefljavik from May next to continue 3w during winter. It is a huge boost for Cork as it links with a transatlantic services for which WOW are offering lead-in prices of €150 each way. Some media reported this as Cork getting its own trans-Atlantic services, but it is no different than connecting through any of the other T/A gateways.

HEATHROW ’s third runway got the go ahead but will not be completed until 2025 at least, with most commentators saying 2029.

RYANAIR announced new winter 16 routes from Bratislava to Ovda (Israel), Leeds and Niš, all 2 pw, providing a total of 15 routes, 51 flights pw and 1m annual passengers Ryanair announced its summer 17 schedule from Valencia, which includes two new routes to Copenhagen and Glasgow (2 pw), four new summer services to Craiova, Lanzarote, Malta and Warsaw, as well as additional frequencies to Pisa. This will allow the company to carry 2m passengers a year on 31 routes. RYANAIR welcomed the enforced changes made to the websites and advertising practices of screenscraper sites eDreams and Opodo (both part of the Odigeo group) following submissions made by Ryanaire

JANUARY 2017 PAGE 32

GLOBAL VILLAGE

Inside the Travel Business

BETABEDS, represented in Ireland by Clem Walshe, launched their first incentive for Irish agents, “one of many trade incentives that we will be running in Ireland over the coming months” according to Emma Lelliott, offering Irish travel agents the opportunity to win €25 One4All vouchers throughout November by registering their branch at http://info@ betabeds.com, logging into the trade website at www.betabeds.com, and finding Betabees. Betabeds is a trade-only site and part of the Truly Holdings Group of companies that includes Alpha Rooms and Teletext Holidays.

LAS VEGAS CVA Tryphavana Cross of Las Vegas CVA posted media to tell of astonishing 22pc growth from the Irish market in 2015 with the T mobile arena opening in 2016 and 150,000 hotel rooms now available.

TOPFLIGHT personnel went in search of a drop of the crater this month in Italy.

ITAA AWARDS Cardiac risk in the young will be the chosen charity at the Irish Travel Industry awards in the Mansion House on January 25. Many families in the travel trade have already suffered tragedy.

AIR CANADA Blaithin O’Donnell is

the new Air Canada Rouge sales representative in Dublin, Air Canada’s first full time sales representative in Ireland and joins from CWT having previously worked with US Airways. Eamon Flanagan’s Premair ably represented Air Canada in Ireland and continue to do so in the changeover period.

TOPFLIGHT sales and management team visited Lake Garda, Sorrento and Sicily on a whirlwind visit to wonderful Italia. Initial sales for Italy 2017 are strong. Family bookings and sales to key hotels are performing very well.

Pat Dawson CEO of the ITAA and Sharon Jordan of Uniworld

Down to the river

ITAA stage first conference on a river cruise ship

he Irish Travel Agents Association hosted its first conferenc eon baord a river cruise ship. Delegates boarded the Uniworld Antoinette in Amsterdam and dis-

embarked in Cologne after a two day programme. The ITAA is looking to its own industry speakers this year. They will include Sarah Slattery on blogging,

a speaker from Uniworld, Mary McKenna on digital media, while Pat Dawson will speak about the package holiday directive.

NINE NEW TRAVEL AGENT LICENSES

ovember round of licensing proved unusually active for the Commission SUNWAY Alison Larkin from Falcon There were 125 travel Travel Shop Clarehall was the winner of the agents and 41 tour operSunway competition for a Royal Caribbean, ators licensed, nine new 7 Nights Greek Isles Cruise on Vision of the Seas to travel on November 5 for 2 people in- travel agents and one new tour operator. cluding flights and transfers. Taken together with the SPAIN, Portugal and the US are the top Spring licensing round, a three destinations for Winter 2016 according total of 222 travel agents to the ITAA quarterly members survey. Agents and 44 tour operators are said 72pc had an increase in turnover for the licensed to operate in Irethird quarter of 2016 (July – September), a fifth land, with a turnover of increased their turnover by more than 20pc, €524m for travel agents 59pc said offline business increased and 48pc and €186m for tour opersaid that over 60pc of business is based on ators. repeat customers. Cruise Holidays were voted CAR indicates the the top travel trend for 2017. Irish travel trade is worth €710m. RIVIERA Stephen Sands of Riviera Nine new travel agent Travel organised a roadshow in Ballinasloe licenses were issued to with travel partners.. the IAG rewards scheme SUNWAY hosted 20 agents to launch Avios Group, to London based We Love Holidays their 2016-7 Morocco programme. Ltd, www.loveholidays. TOPFLIGHT hosted a Lean Best ie, Falcon Leisure Group Practice for Enterprise Ireland companies. (Overseas) Ltd while new licenses the result of reClaudia Morales led a ARGENTINA delegation of Argentinian tourism partners on a organization were issued to Padraig Roche’s Marathon road show to Dublin.

Coach Travel Ltd trading as Marathon Travel, Marathon Coach Travel, Marathon Sports Travel, Funfactory, and The Funfactory, and Ask Susan Travel which has taken over Maureen Delmar Travel Services and MD Travel as trading names. Three licenses applied for and not renewed included Atlantic Sky Team Tours Ltd, DB Tours Ltd and PCE Coaches in Tralee. The CAR says it “is continuing to engage with these firms and may issue licences in due course; if so, we will update details on our website.” Five agents that ceased trading included Alpha International now part of Truly Travel (Ireland), a partner of London based Teletext holidays. Mary Concannon now trading as Eblana Travel, Maureen Delmar, now part of M Delmar Travel/Ask Susan, Memet Uludag trading

as Asia Minor Tours and Ebookers.ie, now part of Expedia Inc. PJ Martley coach hire in Portlaoise was deemed not to require a license and P&MM Travel continues to operate outside of Ireland Adehy Ltd added TUI as a trading name. David O’Hagan’s Donabate Travel added The Holiday Shop, Visitlapland.ie and Aquasuites.ie as trading names. Pamela Brownlee’s Flyaway Travel added Cruises For You as a trading name. London-based Caribtours deleted Caribtours and added Caribbean Escapes as a trading name and deleted caribtours. ie, caribtours.co.uk and theprivatetravelcompany. co.uk. Ciara Mooney’s Freedom Travel added Solo Travel as a trading name. George Hook Jr’s Irish Rugby Tours added irishrugbytours.com added as a trading name. Tom Britton’s Marble City

Travel added Cruise Paradise as a trading name, Stephen McKenna’s Travel Management Solutions added Safari Expert as a trading name, USIT Ireland added Waterford IT, IT Athlone, and UL as branches, and Cogo Travel and U Trek as trading names, Wendy Wu Tours added Inbound China and Asia Inspirations as trading names, Falcon Leisure Group added Thomson Airways, TUI, Crystal Holidays, Crystal Ski, and Crystal Summer as trading names, most were previously under Specialist Holiday Group Ireland to which American Holidays, Travelmood, and Crystal Alfresco were added. Joe Walsh Pilgrimtours added Fatima Pilgrim Tours and deleted Pilgrimages Abroad, Laurie Duffy Travel and Allsports Services deleted as a trading name.

JANUARY 2017 PAGE 33

Inside the Travel Business

GLOBAL VILLAGE MSC cruises presented their best per-

forming Irish agents with awards on board MSC Fantasia on a celebratory cruise out of Genoa for 1,800 agent guests at All Stars of the Sea. Sales producer: Paul Hackett’s Clickandgo (shortlisted Travelfox, Cruise Escapes). Group producer: Alan Lynch’s Cruisescapes (shortlisted Cassidy Travel, Cruisesforyou). Best online agent: Cassidy travel (shortlisted: Clickandgo and Tour America), Network: Travel Centres. Innovation: Jeff Collins’ Best4travel (shortlisted: Clickandgo). Yacht club producer: Mary McKenna’s Tour America. Career achievement: Ros Walsh of Travelfox.

Oasis Travel being presented with travel agency of the year at the 2016 Northern Ireland Travel News awards at the Slieve Donard hotel on Newcastle Co Down

Sandra crowned

Sandra Corkin wins travel agent of the north

andra Corkin’s Oasis travel won the NI Travel agency of the year award at the Northern Ireland Travel News ceremony event in Newcastle, Co Down. The Northern Ireland Travel Awards were attended by 458 and compered by Ballymena born James Nesbitt, with 29 awards in all: Tourist Information Centre: Belfast Welcome Centre., Special Achievement Gerry Lennon, Marketing Initiative:

Tourism Ireland, NI Visitor Attraction: Titanic, Student Gemma Gibson, Ferry Company: Stena Line, Travel Insurance Company: Blue Insurances, Luxury Line: Silversea, Specialist Cruise Line: Royal Caribbean International, Cruise Line: Royal Caribbean, holiday add-ons: Holiday Extras, Airline Belfast City: Aer Lingus, Airline Belfast International: Easyjet, Airline Worldwide: Emirates, Accommodation-Only:

Getabed, Internet Booking System: Jet2holiays, Worldwide Tour Op: Gold Medal Travel2, Specialist Tour Op American Holidays, Luxury Op If Only, Ski Operator: Topflight, Tour Op to Europe: American Holidays, Tourist Board: Spanish TB, Representative of the Year: Martin Maclaren of Beachcomber Tours, Sales Support Team: Jet2 Holidays, Multiple Retail Group: Thomson Castle Court, Personality: Peter McMinn,

TRAVEL CENTRES AWARD WINNERS

he Travel Centres award winners for 2017 were announced at a gala evening in Mullingar: Long haul agent large, Joint Winners: O’Hanrahan Travel & The Travel Broker, Long

haul agent, small: Bowe Travel, Cruise agent, large: Marble City Travel, Cruise agent, small: Liberty Travel, DP agent, large: Lee Travel, DP agent, small: Freedom Travel, Use of Social

Kate McGillycuddy

their latest phase of their expansion programme having grown to nine shops, with the opening of Best4Travel Northside, Peter Dolan’s Creation Travel and Jim McGonigle’s Clondalkin Travel as well as hiring ten home workers. Jeff Collins says that nine agencies have signed up for Globe’s CRM tool, Vertical systems v-suite (website) and will be concentrating on expanding this base.

CARIBBEAN AWARD It was

a good month for Irish travel writing. Thomas Breathnach won the premier prize at the Caribbean Travel Journalism Awards at WTM, for his ‘Cool Runnings’ travel feature on Jamaica, the first Irish writer to do so. Serial winner of the TE Travel Writer of the Year award Pól Ó Conghaile won the lead prize for members of the British Guild of Travel Writers in London. Yes, Pól is from Ballinasloe and based in Dublin, but don’t tell the guild that.

ment, from one year out of three to one year out of two, changed remittance frequency from monthly to twice monthly, on the 1st and the 15th of the month following the month of sale and has increased liquidity requirements. The changes take effect from April 1st 2017.

HOLIDAY TAXIS Andy Baker, Ciara Mooney Freedom Travel

KATE THE FIRST KERRY FINALIST

BEST4TRAVEL have completed

IATA has changed its profitability require-

Media: Magic Vacations, Website: Premier Travel, Overall agent, large: O’Hanrahan Travel, Overall agent, small:: Bowe Travel, Supplier: Bookabed

ate McGillycuddy from Abbey Travel in Killarney became the second Munster finalist in the competition to win a Polo Magnifico run by Blue Insurances. She joins Angela Taylor from Oasis Travel, Hel-

747 TRAVEL Vinod Pellai formerly of Oscar Travel has bought into 747 travel which recently moved upstairs on Camden Street and are opening a new office. Michael Caslin shows no sign of retiring.

ena Kilduff from Skytours, Rose Kane from Kanes Travel in Longford, Claire Mulligan from Clubworld Travel, Mandy Walsh of Travel Counsellors and Rita Gaughan from Limerick Travel.

Sales Director for Holiday Taxis, Jodie Turner, Business Development Manager and Audrey Headon of Headon Representation presented four Irish Agents with their Hot 100 Agents awards, given to 100 top performing agents across Ireland Recipients of this award were, Innstant Travel, GoHop.ie, Arrow Tours and Cassidy Travel. Picture shows Jodie Turner, Anne Marie Buckley and Brenda Ryan, both Cassidy Travel, Audrey Headon and Andy Baker.

TURKISH Maria Bradley from RCSI Travel, Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland won 2 return economy class tickets to anywhere on Turkish Airways network. Agents can enter by sending the ticket number, name, email address and the name of your agency by email. The more tickets issued the more chances of winning.

JANUARY 2017 PAGE 32

TRAVEL WRITER AWARDS 2017

2002 winner Cleo Murphy with and Gerry O”Hare of Travel Extra

T 2003 winner Pól Ó Conghaile with tourism minister Seamus Brennan who presented the award

2004 winner Pól Ó Conghaile with Gerry O’Hare, Seamus Brennan and Michael Doorley

2005 winner Kathryn Thomas with Gerry O’Hare and James Malone

2006 winner Muriel Bolger with Stephen Rea who presented the awards

Get your entry in for writer awards

he Travel Extra Travel Writer of the year awards are now open for entries. There are eleven categories and entries are invited to: Travel Extra Travel Writer awards, Limelight Communications, 60 Grand Canal Street Upper, Dublin 4. Articles should be printed out in hard copy with contact details for the entrant. The awards will be presented at a function in Thomas Prior House on Friday January 27 2017, during the Holiday World Show at RDS Simmonscourt. Home market - Category sponsor: Fáilte Ireland. Long haul - Category sponsor: TBC. Northern Ireland - Category sponsor: TourismNI Digital media - Category sponsor: TBC. Short break - Category spon-

2015 award winner Isabel Conway with Sharon Jordan of TTC sor: Cassidy Travel. Previous winners of the overall Skiing - Category sponsor: Top- award were: 2002 Cleo Murphy, 2003-4 Pól Ó Conghaile, 2005 flight. Sun holiday - Category sponsor: Kathryn Thomas, 2006 Muriel Bolger, 2007 Philip Nolan, 2008 Pól Ó TBC Broadcast Production - Cat- Conghaile, 2009 Mark Evans 2010 Philip Nolan 2011 Isabel Conway egory sponsor:TBC. Spain – Category sponsor: 2013 Sue Morrell. 2013-4 Pól Ó Conghaile, 2015 Isabel Conway Spanish Tourist Board. Overall - Category sponsor: The Travel Corporation.

2009 winner Mark Evans with Eoghan Corry and Gerry O’Hare

2012 winner Sue Morrell with Eoghan Corry, Gonzalo Ceballos and Alex Incorvaja

2007 winner Philip Nolan with Gerry O’Hare, James Malone and Alex Incorvaja

2010 winner Philip Nolan with Lorraine Keane, Maureen Ledwith and Eoghan Corry

2013 winner Pól Ó Conghaile with Heidi Drummond of the Maltese Tourist Board

2008 winner Pol O Conghaile with Gerry O’Hare

2011 winner Isabel Conway with Alex Incorvaja and Gerry O’Hare

2014 winner Pól Ó Conghaile with Victor Bonett of the Maltese Tourist Board

JANUARY 2017 PAGE 35

WINDOW SEAT Last month in numbers

i€3.4bn Amadeus revenue in first nine months of 2016

119m Number of passengers Ryanair says it

will carry in FY 2016.

2.5m Number of trans Atlantic seats available on Aer Lingus services in summer 2017.

2.5m Number of passengers handled by Dublin airport in October. 16 Number of hotel bedrooms that Dublin will

gain in 2016 with one new opening after closures..

5 Number of rotations that Celebrity cruises will

operate from Dublin homeport in April-May 2018.

MAGNIFICENT MEN IN FLIMSY MACHINES

ew people nowadays are able to visualise the difficulties and dangers of learning to fly in 1910. Flying was in the experimental stage. It was impossible to predict how the frail and flimsy structure would behave in the air. So said Captain Frederick Sykes writing in 1940. The spirit is captured by Guy Warner in his account of early aviation in Ireland. The book describes and examines the key events in the field of

Pioneers, Showmen and the RFC by Guy Warner is published by Colourpoint Creative €16

aviation during the years between Harry Ferguson’s first flight until the outbreak of the First World War. It studies the people, the aircraft and the places involved, and make much use of contemporary sources to reveal the story through the eyes of those who witnessed these exciting times.

Many of the main personalities are covered as well as new research on several hitherto lesser-known pioneers. Guy Warner is a contributor to the Journal of the Ulster Aviation Society and many of the aviation magazines.

Qasr Al Sarab and the Maldives

Busman’s holiday: Deirdre Sweeny

Every month we ask a leading travel professional to write about their personal holiday experience. This month: Deirdre Sweeny of Sunway

ill you share? That was the first question asked of me when we arrived into Abu Dhabi. “With a stranger,” I secretly thought. But that is the nature of these trips. Share’n’share alike I had set off on a trip that I would remember forever. Two nights in Abu Dhabi, what a whirlwind, the amazing Mosque, Yas island, desert safari, Abu Dhabi had a huge array of things to

offer. A quick road trip to Dubai held unknown pleasures Karama, a shopper’s paradise, oasis of handbags, silk materials, and silver jewels- and all the haggling took place in a downtown apartment. One of our party had three words to say as we were about to enter into what

looked like an small family apartment: banged up abroad? This was fun at its best We giggled, laughed and shopped We then dined, wined and travelled. We left the UAE wanting more. Next stop was Qasr Al Sarab, an oasis in the middle of the desert just a two and a half hour drive out of Abu Dhabi. To luxury style villas in Anatara’s top class resort, it was a wow, food, service ,midnight buffet under the stars, an experience to be remembered The morning came far too early Off to the Maldives: On arrival we are met by hundreds of sea planes all bobbing along in the

FROM THE EDITOR’S DESK

onald Trump’s victorious US election campaign, heavy on combative rhetoric and light on policy, has given the travel industry lots of reasons to be fearful. The visa waiver scheme and the J1 student visa are under renewed threat, not just from Trump, but from the new battalion of conservatives who have gained unrestrained control of the house and the senate as a result of the elections.

Polls across Europe show big drops in the number of people who will visit under a Trump presidency, including a travel agent poll in England which showed 20pc said they will not visit the US under a Trump presidency and 30pc said they would think twice. But inbound to the US is only a small part of a problem that sees the mood turn ugly against freedom to travel. Will Donald Trump’s arrival at

the White House spell the end of the expansion of Middle Eastern airlines into America? Will it send the visa waiver program backwards and mean the end of J1, something Trump has proposed? Will Brand USA’s public budgets be slashed and will we have a new round of politicians who don’t get it about inbound tourism to America? Reasons to be fearful indeed

water waiting for its next set of passengers to be whisked away to their exclusive island. The Maldives made up of 100s of resort islands. Spectacular is the only word for these sights. Flying with the pilot and co-pilot, it was like being in a sitting room. We were all one tiny family on the way to paradise. The views below are AMAZING, clear aqua blue water, fish of all kind. The underwater view from our water villa was as only you would dream of. I had arrived in heaven There I stayed for a number of days and nights until the dreaded end arrived Oh how I love my job.

IN YOUR NEXT TRAVEL EXTRA: Available to Travel Agents or online January 22 2017

HOLIDAY WORLD ISSUE 2017 Miami and other new destinations HOLIDAY TRENDS

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JANUARY 2017 PAGE 36

MEETING PLACE

becca Kelly of MSC Erica Oglesby and Re a, Se MSC All Stars of the

at the

Sissel Thorstensen of Ke Malone of Rathgar Tra rala Tourism and James vel at the Kerala Touri sm event in Dublin,

Out and about with the Travel Trade

Maura O’Connor, Karen O’Neill and Monica Rossi John Spollen of Cassidy Travel and Pamela of Abbey Travel at the Kerala Tourism event in Brownlee of Flyaway Travel/Cruisesforyou durin the ceremonial cruise Dublin, MSC All Stars of the Se g a,

Orla Timmins of Travel Broker and Wilson Mathew of Intersight tour at the Kerala Tourism event in Dublin,

of lan and Emma Dinan at Alper Sean Kanburoglu of Turkish Airlines with Ger Dinan, Marike No TS AT of y wle Ro ra rba Karen Ray and Louise Dunne of the Travel Ba Douglas Travel with nference in Mullingar Broker and Onur Gul of Turkish Airlines Co 16 20 es ntr Ce vel the Tra

Lorraine Quinn of Celeb of ITAA, and Jo Rzym rity Cruises, Pat Dawson ow at the Celebrity announ ska of Celebrity Cruises cement

ter e of DK Travel with Pe Derval and Denis Dunn e at the Travel Centres Blu Conway of Caribbean llingar 2016 Conference in Mu

Jason Whelan and Cia ran Mulligan of Blue Ins ances at the Travel Ce urntres 2016 Conference Mullingar in

Ciara Mooney of Freedom Travcel and Ramesh Kumar Uday Saundra Leisure Beach Hotel at the Kerala Tourism event in Dublin,

Teena Paul with Rachel Treacy and Andre Migliarina of Atlas Travel/Gohop at the Kerala Tourism event in Dublin,

Georgina Kelly and Arijana Bogdovic of Travel Broker with Roy Chacko of Vithiri at the Kerala Tourism event in Dublin,

lla Grant of O’Hanrahan Nicola Quigley and Ste of Bookabed at the Travel with Lee Osbornenference in Mullingar Travel Centres 2016 Co

Tony Flynn of Ethiopian Ray and Louise Dunn Airways with Karen e of Travel Centres 2016 Co the Travel Broker at the nference in Mullingar

rd Sarah Murphy of Ma Catherine’s O’Keeffe an ey of Dublin Airport at lon ble City with Maura Ma Conference in Mullingar 16 the Travel Centres 20

Niall McDonnell of Cla ssic Collection with Jac inta Manto and Ian Manto of Harvey Travel at the Travel Centres 2016 Co nference in Mullingar

n Pye of Irish Ferries at Marie McCarthy and An Conference in Mullingar 16 the Travel Centres 20

JANUARY 2017 PAGE 37

Out and about with the Travel Trade

MEETING PLACE

Rebecca Dunne, Carm el Aylward and Claire and Jean Cusack Barbara Rowley of ATTS/Expedia with Lisa Cu- Dunner represen tes ira Em m fro n ha ee ting sack and Darren Yeates of Midland Travel at the the nHelena Sh Co 16 20 Travel Broker at Travel Moore Street branch of Travel Centres Travel Centres 2016 Conference in Mullingar Centres 2016 Conferen from Icon Travel at the ce ference in Mullingar

Rebecca Kelly of MSC an fox on board MSC Fanta d Ros Walsh of Travelcruise for MSC All Sta sia during the ceremonial rs of the Sea,

John Spollen of Cassidy Travel and Mary McKenna of Tour America on board MSC Fantasia during MSC All Stars of the Sea,

we Travel with Patrick Catherine Ryan of Bo Elwell of Flexible a Devonshire and Andre es 2016 Conference ntr Autos at the Travel Ce

vel Tom Britton of Marble Ciara Mooney of Freedom Travel and Andrew n Yeats of Midland Tra Lisa Cusack and Darre d Leila McCabe of Thom- Lynch of of Travel Advisors with Maryin Penrose Kenna of Tour Ameri City Travel, Mary Mcca and Gerald Nolan of with Martina Dowling an ntres 2016 Conference of If Only at the Travel Centres 2016 Conference lebrity Cruises at the Celebrity announcem Ceent son cruises at Travel Ce

Antoinella Novak of MS C Brownlee of Flyaway Tra cruises and Pamela board MSC Fantasia du vel/Cruisesforyou on ring MSC All Stars

Jennifer Callister of Royal Caribbean with GTI Ireland at the Travel Centres 2016 Conference in Mullingar

ie Soupéne from TouSandra Dargent and Jul of Bowe Travel at the we louse with Michael Bo nference in Mullingar Travel Centres 2016 Co

vel Caroline O’Toole of Fahy Travel, Peter Cullen of Cross of Platinum Tra Jill Scully of Neenan tra vel Justine Cross and Paula mair at the Travel Cen- Clickandgo and Jeff Collins of Best4Travel/Globe Ga Pre ynor Cunningham of Glowith Mark Wade and of n an hm Ba s with Jen be Hotels at the Hotels during MSC All Stars of the Sea, r Travel Centres 2016 Co in Mullinga tres 2016 Conference nference in Mullingar

Sandra Corkin, John Ga ton at the Celebrity ho lligan and Alison Hamilmeport announcemen t

Paul Varghese, Vinod Pillai, Nivil Abraham and Shane Caslin of 747 Travel at the Kerala Tourism event in Dublin,

we Travel and Jenny Donna O’Gorman of Bo 16 the Travel Centres 20 Rafter of Aer Lingus at r Conference in Mullinga

JANUARY 2017 PAGE 38

MEETING PLACE

rke at the Travel Centr Dominic and Bernie Bu r, conference in Mullinga

Sandra Dargent and Jul ie Sopuene from Midi Pyrenees & Toulouse at the Travel Centres conference in Mullingar,

Out and about with the Travel Trade

Lee Osborne of Bookabed at the Travel Centres Sharoin Jordan of The Travel Corporatoin and Jeanette Taylor of Sunw conference in Mullingar, conference in Mullinga ay at the Travel Centres r,

Deirdre Sweeney of Sunway, Mandy Burrie of n and Deirdre ETravel, Shane Cullen of Killiney Travel, and Lor- Jeanette Taylor, Mary Dento to the Travel Cennt we o wh ay raine Quinn at the Celebrity announcement Sweeny of Sunw an Irish flag, tres fancy dress ball as

ul wbridge Travel and Pa Alanana Shannon of Ne vel Centres conference Deirdre Sweeny of Sunway and Maura Maloney Tra of Dublin Airport at the Travel Centres conference Norman of APG at the in Mullingar, in Mullingar,

Jeff Collins of MSC an d board MSC Fantasia du Erica Oglesby of MSC on rin for MSC All Stars of the g the ceremonial cruise Sea,

sica Simpson of Matthew Dakin and Jes Carolyn of Cavan ura A2B Transfers with La es 2016 Conference ntr travel at the Travel Ce

Dawn Conway of Sunw ay Clickandgo on board MS and Paul Hackett of C Fantasia during the ceremonial cruise for MSC All Stars of the Se a,

John Sisson of Dublin Airport, Hasan Mutlu of Turkish Airlines and Anita Thomas of Emirates at the 2016 Northern Ireland Travel News awards

Kelly Witham of Virgin Atl the Travel Broker, Joh antic, Clare Dunne of n Barrett of Magic Collec tion, Dympna Crowle y of Lee Travel and Ho lly Best of Virgin Atlantic at Travel Centres conference

America and Caroline Mary McKenna of Tour on board MSC Fantasia Oâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;Toole of Fahy Travel the Sea, of during MSC All Stars

Thomas McNally of Bedsonline, Alanna Shannon of Newbridge Travel, Paul Norman of APG. Holly Maeve Slalom of Blue Insurances, Tryphava Best of Virgin Atllantic and John Booty of Wendy Cross of NYC & Company and John Spolle na n of Wu at the Travel Centres conference in Mullingar, John Cassidy Travel at NITN awards

Austin Carroll and Ciara Foley of Platinum Travel with Lee Osborne of Bookabed at the Travel Centres conference in Mullingar,

d an of neenan Travel an Celine and Alan Neen ay at the Travel Centres nw Deirdre Sweeny of Su r, conference in Mullinga

page 039 12/05/2016 12:10 Page 1

UL Arena, Limerick SATURDAY 18th & SUNDAY 19th FEBRUARY 2017 EXHIBITOR PROFILE • Adventure Travel

• Hotels

• Airlines

• National and Regional Tourist Organisations

• Airports • Caravans & Motorhomes

• Overseas Property

• International Camping Sites

• Weddings & Honeymoons

• Car Rental Companies

• Over 55’s Holidays

• Coach Tours

• Rail Holidays

• Cruise Companies

• Theme & Leisure Parks

• Ferries

• Travel Agents / Tour Operators

• Golf • Escorted Tours

• Travel Related Services

• Health Tourism

• Tourist Attractions

• Home Holidays

• Travel Accessories

BOOK YOUR STAND NOW! VENUE

2017 DATE AND TIMES

ORGANISERS

CONTACTS

UL Arena University of Limerick Limerick Ireland t: +353 (0)61 213 582 www.ulsport.ie

Saturday February 18th 12.00pm - 5.30pm

Business Exhibitions Limited 59 Rathfarnham Road Dublin, D6W AK70 Ireland t: +353 (0)1 295 7418 f: +353 (0)1 295 7417

Maureen Ledwith - Sales Director t: +353 (0)1 291 3700 f: +353 (0)1 295 7417 e: maureen@bizex.ie

Sunday February 19th 12.00pm - 5.30pm

Paulette Moran - Sales Manager t: +353 (0)1 291 3702 f: +353 (0)1 295 7417 e: paulette@bizex.ie

www.holidayshow.ie  

RDS Hall 3, Ballsbridge

Presented by

WEDNESDAY 22nd MARCH 2017 EXHIBITOR PROFILE

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An initiative of the ITAA supported by Travel Centres, Worldchoice and Travelsavers

Travel Agent Proprietors, Managers and Frontline Travel Professionals.

PROMOTION OF THE SHOW A comprehensive promotional programme will ensure a high turnout of travel agent proprietors, managers and frontline travel professionals.

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RDS Hall 3 Anglesea Road Ballsbridge Dublin DO4 AK83 Ireland t. +353 (0)1 668 0866 w. www.rds.ie

Wednesday 22nd March 2017 2.00pm – 7.00pm

The Irish Travel Industry Trade Show is organised on behalf of The Irish Travel Agents Association by Business Exhibitions Limited 59 Rathfarnham Road Terenure Dublin D6W AK70

Maureen Ledwith - Sales Director t: +353 (0)1 291 3700 e: maureen@bizex.ie Paulette Moran - Sales Manager t: +353 (0)1 291 3702 e: paulette@bizex.ie

www.irishtravelindustrytradeshow.com 107838 TRADE SHOW 2017_V3.indd 1

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