Bringing a rich variety of holiday products to the Channel Island market is no easy feat, as our travel guru and industry professional, Gary Hudson, explains in this week’s guest column.
‘In last week’s column, I tried to lighten the current mood by encouraging us all to look forward to a time when we will be able to enjoy overseas holidays once more.
‘I offered a variety of destinations, some worldwide, some close to home, and others further afield. For many of us, there are favourite resorts, with myself no exception – mine being long haul choices of Australia, Hong Kong, California and, top of the list, the Hawaiian Islands.
‘While these are fantastic regions to enjoy, travel times, let alone cost, make them aspirational one-off holiday adventures for many people. Local European hotspots, if time and funds permit, are the destinations most likely to be on our ‘most visited’ list.
‘Choosing favourite destinations is not easy, but my closer-to-home favourites are Malta, Croatia and one I became exceptionally attached to, and still am, is the beautiful island in the Eastern Mediterranean, Cyprus.’
Falling for Cyprus
‘There are numerous reasons for falling in love with the island of love: the weather, the beaches and countryside, the plethora of accommodation choices. But mainly, it’s the people. The citizens of this Mediterranean island, a five-hour flight from the British Isles, are among the most welcoming worldwide, and it doesn’t take long to feel at home.
‘My love affair with Cyprus didn’t start with holidaying on the island. It began when I was visiting in my role as Tour Manager at Skyline Travel on Jersey, back in the nineties. I was looking into whether we could introduce direct flights to the island from the Channel Islands.
‘This was an exciting project and one I wanted to partake in and deliver to the residents of the islands. After lengthy discussions with several airlines directly, and Air Brokers (specialising in adhoc aircraft charter programmes), it was agreed that while the flight path could be achieved from Jersey (the runway is not big enough in Guernsey), there were to be several conditions that needed to be met.
‘While consultations were ongoing, we had to procure the right accommodation, in the right resorts, for our limited direct charter operation, which was to be in October. As a well entrenched business in the Channel Islands travel industry, the management of Skyline anticipated the vast majority of clients for this limited direct charter operation would be interested in premium 4 and 5* luxury accommodations. A visit to Cyprus was in order, so off I went.
‘I was welcomed by warm, dedicated management of some of the island’s top hotels, some long standing properties and some recently built, such as the magnificent Four Seasons Hotel (not part of the luxury hotel chain of the same name), which was situated just outside of lively Limassol.
‘Just before arriving for my inspection, which evolved quicker than expected into a contracting visit, this hotel had made international news. The Sultan of Brunei had recently stayed with a considerable entourage, and on departure it is said he left a sizeable tip to all the hotel employees, totalling some £250,000. It was rumoured to be the largest gratuity gesture in the world at that time.
‘I was on the island for five days, after which I’d contracted what I hoped would be the right hotel choices for our two flight arrivals. As the fight had to operate to Larnaca and not Paphos, it was decided that we’d offer Larnaca, Ayia Napa and Limassol, with a few choices of accommodation in each.
‘The British Midland aircraft was chartered, accommodation and ground transport contracted, and the Skyline office excited to promote. We were ready to launch.’
Launching a charter holiday
‘Wham. We were not expecting the immediate initial interest. There was no time to breathe. Within 24 hours, 30% of the seats had been sold. We’d expected the 4* accommodation to lead sales but 70% of those booking in the first 24 hours had been for the luxurious 5* Four Seasons, so new contracts were quickly arranged.
‘With both departure dates full, a total of 260 travellers were heading to the Four Seasons. The first outbound flight went out as planned. It just happened to coincide with holiday time for me – a visit to the Far East. l readied myself for a Singapore Airlines flight, with the knowledge that the longest charter flight to operate from the Channel Islands was well underway.
‘Wrong.’
Thinking on your feet (at 32,000ft)
‘Contacting the office before boarding, I was told the British Midland flight had eventually reached Larnaca but only after performing an unexpected refuel stop at Zurich, and thus it could not guarantee the remaining services. Not what l wanted to hear.
‘This was in the days before mobile phones worked on aircraft, so on my long 13-hour flight to Singapore, usually a time for relaxing, some refreshments and watching a movie, I spent many an (expensive) hour on the air-phones.
I was frantically searching, negotiating and, very fortunately, contracting an alternative aircraft with Eurocypria, for the remainder of the programme.
‘It didn’t come at extra cost to our clients but it did come at more expense to Skyline, and more work. Paper tickets were still a requirement to travel, so there were lots of phone conversations between the Jersey offices of Skyline, Eurocypria, Cypriot ground handlers, accommodation and transportation providers, and myself, all while I was mid-air. Fun.
‘Those in Cyprus needed new tickets to return and we needed the support of the hoteliers, in addition to our ground services, to not only distribute new documents, but to advise guests they had an extra 10 hours on the island due revised flight times.
‘I was assured in later correspondence that all guests had taken the change remarkably well. To this day, I’m not sure whether this was because they had extra time on the island, or were just relieved they had a return flight full stop.
‘The second departure, school half term, had no incidents whatsoever, which was a relief as l was in the Australian outback by this time, and it would have been very difficult to contact me.’
Getting Channel Islanders the holiday they deserve
‘I decided to write about this particular scenario for readers to understand how island travel businesses try to introduce new, innovative holidays, and to highlight the underlying complexities of bringing these to market, all so you can enjoy that holiday you deserve.
‘Since these direct charter flights operated, I’ve made so many friends on Cyprus, and I travel there every year. By far my favourite on island luxury hotel still remains the now much enhanced Four Seasons, where you will experience the finest on the island, and whose management have gone on to procure the ‘Leading Hotel of the World ‘ Amathus Beach Hotel, sharing the same golden sand manicured beach of the Four Seasons. Cyprus, an island destination, truly for all seasons.’
