April Ski Deals from Adventure Base

Adventure Base, the Chamonix and Morzine chalet specialist, has some fantastic deals for late April skiing. The ski deals involve both catered and self-catered chalets as well as two luxury apartments that feature a hot tub.

MORZINE - PORTES DU SOLEIL

14th April

Chalet Lanchettes Morzine now available self catered - Whole Chalet £2,000.

Chalet La Cordee Morzine now available self catered - Whole Chalet £2,300

Apartment La Galerie Morzine 50% off! - Whole apartment now £1,000 Self catered.

Apartment Le Petit Balcon Morzine 50% off! - Whole apartment now £800 Self catered.

CHAMONIX - MONT BLANC

14th April

Melee Apartment Argentiere 6 person 20% OFF - Whole apartment now £1,440 Self
catered.

Melee Apartment Argentiere 8 person 20% OFF - Whole apartment now £1,760 Self
catered.

Chalet Viper Chamonix
20% OFF - Whole Chalet now £1,232 Self catered, £2,808 Fully catered.

Chalet Iceman Chamonix
20% OFF - Whole Chalet now £780 Self catered, £1,900 Fully catered.

Chalet Maverick Chamonix
Catered 20% OFF - Whole Chalet now £2,785 Fully catered.
Now available self catered - Whole Chalet £1,500.


21st April

Melee Apartment Argentiere 6 person 20% OFF - Whole apartment now £1,440 Self
catered.

Melee Apartment Argentiere 8 person 20% OFF - Whole apartment now £1,760 Self
catered.

Chalet Viper Chamonix
Up to 50% OFF - Whole Chalet now £1,000 Self catered.

Chalet Slider Chamonix
Up to 50% OFF - Whole Chalet now £750 Self catered.

Chalet Iceman Chamonix
Up to 50% OFF - Whole Chalet now £620 Self catered.

Chalet Maverick Chamonix
Now available SELF CATERED!!! - Whole Chalet £1,100 Self catered.

Croatia Holidays Featured by The Independent

The Independent - Croatia Holidays Challenge

Croatia holidays were back in the national news last weekend. The Independent national newspaper featured a Croatia holidays break in their weekly Travel Challenge on 6th April. See image to the left. The weekly challenge is where The Independent invites three holiday companies to offer their best break for a specific destination.

The timing of the Croatia coastal break was for a 7 day holiday that included the May Bank holiday weekend and had to include flights from Gatwick and transfers to the accommodation. Our client, Completely Croatia took part in the challenge along with two rival tour operators.

Completely Croatia offered the most upmarket of the three holidays. Featuring a stay at the 5 star Hotel More Dubrovnik, as well as a tour of the old city of Dubrovnik. The price of the Completely Croatia holiday totalled £829 per person. The flights were with Easyjet. Their competitors offered less luxurious accommodation and lower prices.

PM's Indian Trip Leads to Criticism

Hot on the heels of all the other controversy surrounding David Cameron's trip to India, we now have the Chief Executive of UK Inbound adding to the criticism of the Prime Minister. Mary Rance, the executive of the UK's inbound tourism agency, has stated that she believes it is the current high levels of Air Passenger Duty (APD) that is really the problem holding back trade and tourism between the two countries. She claims that the UK's high level of flight taxes is deterring Indian families from travelling to the UK.

A recent Visit Britain press release stated Indian tourist numbers to the UK have dropped from 371,000 in 2010 to 348,000 in 2012.

 Mary Rance, chief executive of UKinbound, said: "Visitors from India spend on average £900 per stay in the UK, about 60% more than the average visitor, a considerable contribution to the country's finances.

"The combination of APD and the cumbersome, expensive visa process are a disincentive for anyone planning to visit the UK and certainly do not help the Prime Minister to convey the message that Britain welcomes businesses and tourists."

India has a strong visiting friends and relatives relationship with the UK. But with flight taxes rising at the UK end and Indian Visa prices rising at the instigation of the Indian Government, it seems both governments are squeezing as much as possible from both business and leisure travel between the two countries.

Visas Become Political Hot Potato

Visas have become a political hot potato over recent weeks. On the one hand we have the business lobby arguing for more relaxed approaches to visas. This lobby, made up of a coalition of travel industry insiders and business agencies such as the CBI, argues that the UK government is making the UK unattractive to wealthy foreign investors and deterring expert employees from applying for jobs in the UK. On the other you have the hang'em and flog'em brigade demanding ever tighter controls over who should be let into the country. Meanwhile, governments both at home and abroad, see international travel as a politically expedient tax raising cash cow ready to be tapped at every opportunity.

Only six weeks ago it was announced that the Indian government was raising the price of Indian visas. It seemed to me that the Indian government was only getting its fair share of the Indian visa food chain as tourism from the UK to India grows. This week we have an alliance of tour and airport operators arguing that the stringent rules on visa entry from China is encouraging Chinese tourists to go elsewhere in Europe and exclude the UK from their travel plans. The airports, in the guise of the Airports Operators Association are involved because, apart from landing fees, Chinese tourists are apparently some of the biggest spenders at airport shops. The Airport Operators Association and the UK Travel Retail Forum have written to George Osborne.

There is no doubt that the UK government takes Britain's overseas business interests very seriously. India, China and the other BRIC (Brazil, Russia, India and China) countries are one of the few current sources of substantial trade growth. Last week saw British Prime Minister, David Cameron, visit India. Cameron declared that Britain was open for business as he led a 100 plus business delegation to India. According to the Daily Telegraph's report, India is worthy of special attention from the Prime Minister because of its size and the fact that English is widely spoken. Too tight a constraint on Indian visas risks choking off this potential growth.

2013 ABTA Convention Starts a Day Early

ABTA have announced today that the 2013 ABTA Travel Convention is to start a day earlier than previously announced. The announcement was included with the publication of the outline flight and business schedule for the 2013 Travel Convention, which appeared this morning.

The Official ABTA Convention 2013 Schedule

The convention in Dubrovnik, Croatia, will now take place from 20th to 22nd October 2013. The event officially gets underway with a ship visit for agents on the morning of Sunday 20th October. Sunday's official business concludes with the traditional welcome party and bar.

The first official business session gets underway on Monday morning. The event is centred on The Hotel Dubrovnik Palace, a large hotel with 308 rooms and suites.The final business session closes at 16:00 on Tuesday 22nd October.

The biggest event of the convention is likely to be the Host Party, hosted by the Croatian Tourist Board, which takes place on Monday evening, 21st October.

Apart from the Croatian Tourist Board, the other main sponsors appear to be Cosmos, Fred Olsen Cruises and the Daily Telegraph. Cosmos launched its Croatia holiday programme whilst I was their Sales and Marketing Director. They have been big supporters of both ABTA and Croatia. So it is good to see them taking a prominent position.

As mentioned several times before on this website, the UK market for Croatia holidays is booming. UK tourists were up 24% in 2012. In hosting the ABTA travel convention, the Croatia Tourist Board are making a real attempt to move Croatia into the UK travel industry mainstream.

Chamonix Chalet Ski Deals

Adventure Base, the Chamonix based catered chalet specialist, have launched a range of discounted ski chalet deals for February and March. The offers apply to both catered and self catered chalets in the ski resort of Chamonix.

The Lounge of Chalet Iceman - Chamonix

The first deal for Chalet Iceman Chamonix is for 7 nights self-catered for up to 6 people for the half-term week of 16th to 23rd of February for an inclusive price of £2,640. The catered chalet option is £4,290 and includes breakfast, afternoon tea and a 3-course dinner with wine.
Chalet Iceman is one of Adventure Base's three chalets located in the centre of Chamonix. The local train and bus stops are just around the corner from the chalet providing easy access to all the Chamonix ski areas.

The Lounge of Chalet Viper - Chamonix

The second deal is for Chalet Viper Chamonix and offers 7 nights catered chalet accommodation for up to 10 people for a total price of £3,896.

Chamonix, in the shadow of Mont Blanc, is one of the top ski resorts in the French Alps. It offers miles of piste as well off-piste skiing and ski trails and is popular with both adventurous skiers and snowboarders alike. Being close to Mont Blanc and the Mont Blanc Tunnel, it is possible to take a days skiing in Cormayeur on the Italian side of the border.

Croatia Gets Tabloid Coverage

Holidays on Croatia's Adriatic Coast 

Evidence that the market for Croatia holidays is moving into the mainstream comes from an article in The Daily Mirror on 23rd January. The article features a family camping holiday using Eurocamp accommodation and flights by budget airline Ryanair. The holiday is based in Istria on Croatia's Adriatic coast. Although admittedly Eurocamp sits at the upper end of the camping market, camping would still be seen as a budget accommodation.

The thrust of the Mirror article is very much about the low budget options available for this normally relatively expensive destination. The holiday accommodation is quotes as costing £446 for 7 nights in May. This does not include the price of the Ryanair flights to Trieste or the hire of car. Trieste is actually in Italy but was part of greater Serbia during the era of the Austria-Hungary up until the 1st World War. It sounds obvious but most holidaymakers would typically fly directly in Croatia.

Gatwick Calls for Cap on Heathrow Winter Flights

A day after my blog post on my experiences of how well Gatwick Airport and Ryanair handled my son's weekend flight to Dublin, the Chief Executive of Gatwick Airport, Steve Wingate, has written to the Secretary of State for Transport, Patrick McLoughlin MP.

Steve Wingate, has requested a limit to the capacity at Heathrow during the winter months. Over the last weekend Heathrow made a large number of flight cancellations, whilst Gatwick and Stansted airports operated an almost level of service. This disruption, as the Gatwick Chief Executive points out has created major disruption for leisure travellers and businesses alike. Wingate makes the point that the level of snowfall was forecast well in advance and could hardly be described as anything exceptional.

On the day my son flew from Gatwick I could see that planes were departing at 5 minute intervals. Poor visibility that Heathrow could not maintain its normal, and much higher, level of departure frequency.

Ryanair and Gatwick Deliver in Snow

Ryanair often gets bad coverage in both the trade and consumer travel press. Even on Travel Thinking I tend to take a pejorative posture on the airline and its boss, Michael O'Leary. This time, however, I am going to be very positive about them. I'm not sure Mr. O'Leary will be able to cope with such positive opinion.

My son had a flight booked to Dublin over the weekend. When the bad weather arrived at the end of last week, like many people we became concerned about flight delays. Heathrow grabbed most of the news with regular updates regarding flights delayed and cancelled. On the other hand, Gatwick Airport was given very little attention.

During Friday and Saturday we kept a close eye on the Gatwick Airport website and my observations were that any delays appeared to caused by disruption elsewhere in Europe, principally Germany, Belgium and airports close to the Alps and the Balkans.

Throughout Saturday morning and early afternoon we monitored Ryanair's departures and found they were generally delayed by no more than 5 to 10 minutes. We left for Gatwick allowing half an hour earlier than normal as the AA Roadwatch website indicated that there were some delays on the southern section of the M25. We arrived on schedule and my son found the airport almost deserted. In the end his flight left just 3 minutes later than officially scheduled.

So all in all, congratulations to Ryanair and Gatwick. While a blame game is currently being fought in the media between the airlines and Heathrow regarding the large number of cancellations over the weekend, my son is sitting happily in Dublin. PS, I think he paid £45 including taxes. 

Indian Visa Prices Rise

According to the Daily Telegraph the price of Indian Visas goes up today. The fee for a single visa which is valid for six months rises to £82, up from £38. There is also an additional processing fee which increases by £1 to £10.20.

Visas are required by most UK citizens whether they visit for leisure or business purposes. Simply Clicks works with The India Visa company an Indian visa specialist. They charge a handling fee of £24 per visa, which is less than the average price of £30 charged by most UK tour operators and travel agents. The India Visa Company has offices in North West London, Birmingham, Manchester and Leeds.

India has become an increasingly popular destination for UK tourists and of course a key potential trading partner for UK business. Visas were originally introduced as a way of keeping out undesirables. If the system is too strict you risked reducing the valuable revenue that tourism raises. Too lax and you have the wrong people turning up.

One could be cynical and suggest that the Indian Government are simply exploiting the popularity of the country to raise extra direct revenue for themselves, rather than have the money reach them indirectly. In following such a policy they would be no more avaricious than the UK Government which introduced and has continually raised the rates for Air Passenger Duty, or APD. By coincidence the rate of Band C APD for travel to India is currently £81. Just £1 different.

Further details can be found via the Government of India, Indian Visa Online website.