Crystal mailshot seeks to win greater slice of sports market

Product update

Crystal mailshot seeks to win greater slice of sports market

Report by ISABELCHOAT

Crystal has sent a mailshot out to 7,500 travel agents promoting special sports packages.

Offers available in the four-page leaflet include tennis weekends at the Hampshire Centre Court hotel near Basingstoke. The package costs £198 per person for two nights and includes breakfasts, two lunches and two dinners, as well as 10-hours’ tennis tuition provided by national coaches. The hotel has indoor and outdoor courts.

Contracts manager Harvey Gahl said: “It is a great weekend suitable for beginners, intermediates or advanced players. Groups are limited to 16 and the coaches analyse your style on video.”

The operator is also flagging up golf packages at the De Vere Hotels featured in its 140-page Crystal Premier Britain brochure. An overnight stay with dinner and breakfast at the St David’s Park near Chester costs £84 including a round of golf.

While these offers are not featured in the current brochure, Gahl intends to add them to the second edition due out in October.

“We are putting greater emphasis on sporting activities and we are keen to remind agents that there are all sorts of things that you can do in Britain whether it’s tennis or taking a spa break,”said Gahl.

Other new products include the Northern Belle, an Orient Express train. The £145 price covers brunch with buck’s fizz, a guided tour and a champagne dinner.

All the packages featured in the mailshot are available until the end of March.

&#42 Crystal has shrunk its Days and Nights events brochure to half its original size to make it easier for agents to display. The operator says the new brochure is now small enough to be racked in front of the Crystal Premier Britain brochure on agents’ shelves. It contains accommodation-inclusive packages to sporting and leisure events, musicals and shows.

Game, set and match: the leaflet will publicise sports packages, such as tennis weekends