The most dynamic ski rental company in the French Alps, Ski Republic, reports ski rental sales are up 34%, comparing winter 2008-9 with the current season, with UK customers representing 55% of turnover and around 50% of all bookings now being received online via www.ski-republic.com

The company launched its `two for one’ ski equipment rental model in December 2007 and has since revolutionized ski equipment hire, challenging the `high price, low service’ tag that ski hire companies had attracted.

Ski Republic’s Gaël Brunhes said “Our challenge is to keep ahead of the competition with high quality equipment at keen prices. Competitors have responded by cutting prices, but so far they’re not offering like for like and Ski Republic are leading the way in affordable ski hire.

All of this is good for consumers, of course, who previously had little choice but to buy in resort or via their tour operator.

With our user-friendly online booking facility clients can now order their ski hire direct for collection in any one of our 33 Ski Republic shops throughout the French Alps”.

The company believes that having had a monopoly for many years, resort hire shops are now having to examine their service and pricing levels, to the benefit of customers. They also expect internet bookings to increase again for the 2010 / 11 season as consumers become more accepting of online booking for their ski equipment requirements.

Independent tour operator, Prestige Holidays, has seen a sharp increase in bookings for Summer 2010 with a year on year rise of 20%. Top selling destinations include: Morocco up 230%, Lake Garda up 328% and the Algarve which has seen a 72% increase in bookings.

John Dixon, chairman and managing director, Prestige Holidays, comments: “We are delighted with how the year has started. The growth has to be due to a combination of factors including some great early booking offers, our very competitive prices and an increase in public confidence. Also we have expanded our Algarve programme in recent years and this has had a positive impact on bookings.”

“Part of the reason Turkey and Morocco have sold so well is they are not in the Euro zone. Also a good proportion of our bookings come through agents and we have a very effective way of working with them. For example we are paying for mailings to their clients and going 50/50 on ads. Our innovative email system enables us to provide them with very keenly priced tactical offers within 30 minutes of one arriving from a hotelier.”

Prestige’s new Canada programme is also selling extremely well with over £500,000 worth of business booked since its launch at the end of last year. All of these bookings have come from our key agents.

The bold stripes of the rainbow flag are brightening up Thomson’s website with the arrival of its new holiday range aimed at the gay market.

Thomson’s all-new Freedom Collection has now launched with a smart new e-brochure. Designed with gay and lesbian travellers in mind, it’s the only collection of its kind to be offered by a mainstream tour operator.

Needless to say, all Freedom Collection holidays are ATOL protected and come with a full overseas service, but what does that mean? Well a hand picked Holiday Advisor to give you all the inside information on the local area such as best beaches, best nightspots and the local ‘scene’, but also to be there for you should things go wrong. The standout feature of the collection is the fact every single hotel, whether it’s a budget base or a boutique bolthole, will have had the GayComfort seal of approval before our customers arrive.

GayComfort is an online accreditation program which means that frontline hotel staff have had special training to help strip out the awkwardness that often creeps into same-sex holidays, such as the moment when a same-sex couple check in and it is assumed that they would want a twin instead of a double. The GayComfort programme has been designed by Out Now, leaders in promoting gay and lesbian travel, and is the only IGLTA recognised endorsement on just how gay friendly a hotel actually is.

Thomson Innovation manager, Philippa Morgan, says: “This is a hugely exciting launch for Thomson. There’s definitely an appetite in the market for gay-friendly holidays that come with the security and peace of mind that only a big tour operator can offer.”

Philippa continues: “The reason we’ve taken this approach is because research has shown that three out of four gay or lesbian holidaymakers actively search out hotels they believe are genuinely welcoming.”

The hotels which include some Gay Exclusive properties are spread across seven ‘pink’ destinations, all of which have either well-established or blossoming gay scenes.

Plus, couples choosing the Freedom Collection can go one step further and organise their civil partnership through the tour operator. Thomson is offering same-sex ceremonies in Ibiza, with extras ranging from stretch limos to fire-swallowing showmen.

Ramblers Worldwide Holidays, has been ranked amongst the top five tour operators in the UK in a Which? Holiday Survey released this week. Ramblers Worldwide Holidays received a Customer Score of 87% compared to an average of 77%.

The leading companies in the survey were largely specialists and direct-sale only operators.

The survey which named 29 companies featured 4,507 Which? online panel members who marked various aspects of their holidays including, journey, accommodation, customer service and value for money.

Commenting on the results, Ramblers Worldwide Holidays Joint Managing Director, Kathy Cook said, “We are absolutely delighted to rank so highly in this very authoritative and much respected survey.

What is particularly pleasing is the contribution our tour leaders have made to the outcome. They came up trumps with our clients, winning five stars for the service given by their company representatives.”

Ramblers Worldwide Holidays also won five stars within the organisational journey and accommodation categories

Adventure tour operator slashes prices by up to 20% on select tours
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