AGENTS and operators report that
sales were up for the Easter holiday
period compared with last year.
Mauritius, Thailand and South Africa
remained the most popular holiday
destinations with agents reporting an
increase in interest to Bali, Zanzibar
and the Maldives.
Pentravel had a strong start to the
year and reported its strongest sales
month in history during March, says
Vicky Steinhardt, marketing and
product manager. She says she always
lumps March and April sales figures
together to give a better overview
of Easter holiday sales due to the
fluctuating travel dates. With this in
mind, Vicky reported that the everpopular
destinations like Mauritius and
Thailand had done well, with Pentravel
reporting a particular boom in cruise
and Northern Lights bookings as well
as growth in beach resort sales for
Bali and Zanzibar.
Andrew Stark, md of Flight Centre
Travel Group (FCTG), agreed, saying the
group was having a good year and had
reported double-digit sales growth in
April compared with the previous year.
He added that enquiries were also
already streaming in for the December
and January travel period and that the
number of long-haul enquiries boded
well for forward bookings.
Beachcomber sales for the period
had been similar to last year but
Joanne Visagie, sales and marketing
director, said forward bookings for
the remainder of 2018 were looking
amazing.
Jacqui Carr, gm of United Europe, also
reported growth compared
with last year, with an increase
in bookings to the US, Dubai,
Italy and London. She added
that they had also noted
an increase in bookings to
Greece and Turkey, despite it
being unusually early for the
season.
Jacqui attributed United
Europe’s growth for the period
to improved conversions due
to its recent investments in
R&D, which enabled faster
quoting through online
inventory access. She also
said many of its April travellers
had finalised their bookings at
the beginning of the year when
the rand was at its strongest,
which was also a contributing
factor to the increase in
booking numbers.
