| Journal: TWUK | Section: |
| Title: | Issue Date: 04/09/00 |
| Author: | Page Number: 22 |
| Copyright: Other |
Sell-out summer
ItalianLife praises trade for help with 2000 sales
Report by TANYA JEFFERIES
ITALIAN Life has attributed a sell-out summer to increased awareness and support from travel agents.Retail sales manager Julia Slater claimed that the operator’s 500-strong property portfolio was totally sold out in June, July and August, and that prospective customers had to be turned away.
As a result, the company has added more than 150 villas to its newly published first-edition 2001 brochure and expects to introduce a further 150 when the second edition is released in mid-November.
Slater said this showed Italian Life had turned the corner in its relations with the trade.
“As the brand is only in its fourth season, we obviously had to do a lot of initial work in order to increase awareness within the trade. That’s true of any new product,” she said.
“Until relatively recently, there were still many agents who didn’t know it is actually the sister company of French Life, which obviously has a long-established position in the industry. We really started to notice a pick-up in bookings last year – a growth that has accelerated dramatically this summer.”
Slater said the company had achieved greater trade awareness through an intensive programme of training, roadshows and educationals.
Italian Life has frozen prices at the same level as this year in its new Early Bookers brochure and is offering a 10% discount on many properties for bookings received up to October 31.
“It’s far better for us to have bookings coming in early, so we know which way the season is going to go,” said Slater. She added that the company would review prices before the second-edition brochure comes out.
The majority of the new properties for next year are in Tuscany, which accounts for around two-thirds of Italian Life’s property portfolio.
A farmhouse sleeping seven on a hill overlooking Arezzo in Tuscany starts at £722 for a week, with an extra week costing from £307.
The price includes a return ferry crossing.
It’s a sell-out: the majority of Italian Life’s newproperties for next year are in Tuscany