CRESTA is to compete head on with US specialists with the launch of a new short-break brochure featuring 12 cities in North America and Canada.
The operator admitted the move was experimental but said the trend for shopping trips across the Atlantic was increasing short-break sales.
Head of marketing Jane Williams said the programme will also help combat the increasing threat from US specialists.
“There’s a lot of activity in the US and the specialists are beginning to tread on our toes in the short-break market,” she said. “It will get the Cresta name on the North America racks.” Most of the cities have been lifted from the operator’s core city-breaks brochure with the exceptions of San Francisco, Las Vegas and Los Angeles which formerly appeared in the worldwide programme.
Williams said, however, that they became lost among the more traditional long-haul destinations of the Caribbean and Far East.
“We couldn’t really put them in our main short-break brochure as it’s already the size of a telephone directory so we have taken them out of worldwide and placed them in the new brochure,” she said.
“We believe the new brochure will appeal to customers who want a US short break but are unsure of where exactly they want to go. We know agents are under pressure to find racking space but hopefully they will know a good product when they see it,” added Williams. Prices lead in at £399 per person for three nights in New York.