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For the second month this year, Premier Holidays has reported record sales, with total passenger bookings up 24% compared to February 2009.
The best seller remains Premier Holidays’ Faraway product, which includes the Middle East, Asia, South Africa, Caribbean and South Pacific: bookings are up a whopping 36%. Bookings to South Africa were up 138%, with passengers taking advantage of the new Classic Cape Town Tour. The Maldives also saw huge success, with an increase of 197%.
Meanwhile, bookings to America were up 23% and 12% to the Channel Islands. “The trend for high value bookings is continuing,” explains Debbie Goffin, Head of Sales and Marketing at Premier Holidays. “The Faraway bookings we took in February that were £10,000 and over were almost double compared to February 2009.”
Conversions are also up year-on-year, although slightly down compared to January 2010 by 3.8%. “Half-term is a factor in this as things slowed down that week, which had a knock-on effect on conversions,” says Goffin.
The Far East saw a huge increase of 80%. “Each country in the Far East is doing really well,” says Goffin. She attributes this success partly to new products in the region. Free city tours were introduced in the second edition brochure – released in January – in Bangkok, Hong Kong, Penang, Singapore and Bali, which are proving extremely popular.
Lead times remain similar to those in January, although a smaller proportion of passengers are now booking 0-3 months ahead. The bulk of bookings to the USA are made 4-6 months in advance, an increase of 14% year-on-year. “More than half our bookings in February for the Channel Islands were over for 4-6 months out,” adds Goffin.
TravelDailyNews Asia-Pacific editorial team has an experience of over 35 years in B2B travel journalism as well as in tourism & hospitality marketing and communications.
