| Journal: TWUK | Section: |
| Title: | Issue Date: 07/08/00 |
| Author: | Page Number: 40 |
| Copyright: Other |
Marketing update
Plenty to offer: good beaches, like those in Rio, sunny weather and historical sites like the Mayan ruins in Yucatan, right, make Latin America an enticing destination for the British touristContinental eyes Brits in Latin America drive
US carrier Continental Airlines has launched a major drive to attract more British passengers onto its flights from the UK to 43 cities in Latin America.The airline is the second largest US carrier flying to Latin America and the largest US carrier to Mexico. This year, it has added flights to Aguascalientes and Puebla in Mexico.
Although its flights via the US take longer than direct services, the airline claims to offer three key advantages over its non-stop competitors. It offers free stopovers in the US; flights from the regional airports of Birmingham, Manchester and Glasgow; and flights to many destinations not served by non-stop services. These include Bogota in Colombia; Quito and Guayaquil in Ecuador; Lima in Peru; Caracas in Venezuela; Sao Paulo in Brazil, via New York and Houston; Rio in Brazil and Santiago in Chile via New York. New for this summer are flights to Belo Horizonte in Brazil and Santa Cruz in Bolivia, both from Newark.
Continental’s services are used by specialist Latin America operators such as Cox and Kings, Kuoni and South American Experience and the airline has worked on various promotional activities with its top UK trade partners this year to try to drum up more business.
The airline has also launched a dedicated 40-page Latin America Travel Guide for the trade and it has organised a press trip to try to get more coverage in the UK media for its services. “Latin America features in our marketing plan as a priority this year,” said a Continental spokesman.
Continental’s most popular destination from the UK is Lima, the capital of Peru, to which there are no non-stop flights. Its cheapest return fare is currently £789 plus tax. Continental operates a double-daily service from Houston to almost every capital city in central America and its most popular destination from the UK is San Jose in Costa Rica. The cheapest return fare is £488 plus tax. In Mexico, its most popular destination is Cancun.