September news

Market situation:

September started with a very clear end to the UK/Europe super-summer along with back-to-school and a bit of back to reality.  The Middle East is still not solved and there is a lot of talk about ‘cost of living crisis’ but the more affluent long-haul customers are the least affected, so demand has been very high as consumers have started to accept the situation.

Some great PR for New Zealand and particularly for the Coastal Pacific train trip has been the Gary Barlow (from ‘Take That’) food and wine tour 6-part TV show.  Part 4 was the episode with the Coastal Pacific Gary Barlow's Wine Tour - Series 3 - Episode 4 - ITVX and some great coverage for Interislander on episode 5 Gary Barlow's Wine Tour - Series 3 - Episode 5 - ITVX

 Some good on-line training sessions with ANZCRO, Kuoni and some smaller agents plus direct personal trainings/visits with ANZCRO again plus Kuoni, Discover the World and Freedom Destinations.

 October and November:

Booked in for training with the Travel Nation crew + their new staff in Brighton, Boomerang (Germany) for their travel show and staff training, visiting Travelbag stores and any others in the vicinity.  Julia Savill will be up here and wants to do joint visits around Word Travel Market which should be good.  This will be followed up quickly by Australia Marketplace which will be attended by all key New Zealand sellers from UK/Europe/Scandinavia.  That is a lot of visits and key NZ sellers in London to catch up with!  Also in November is the Travel Counsellors annual conference in Manchester.  The cost to have a booth is over £7,000GBP but I will be attending this as a guest, so cost is just travel and accommodation expenses, bargain!