The season to be merry is approaching, and while many Brits swap roast turkey for sunshine an increasing number prefer to celebrate Christmas on home turf.
Last December, the number of UK overnight holiday trips increased by 7% to 2.9 million, compared with December 2008, with spending rising by 10% to £631 million, according to VisitEngland. This contrasted with a 16% fall in overseas trips.
This trend, combined with new products, special deals and accommodation ranging from self-catering to luxury hotels with all the trimmings, shows why there is plenty of opportunity to sell stay-at-home clients a perfect festive package.
Superbreak is aiming at festive sales of £1.5 million, a growth target of 20% on 2009. As well as packages at more than 460 hotels, it offers Christmas shopping breaks by rail, festive market trips, activity experiences and theatre breaks.
National sales manager Graham Balmforth says: “A little creative marketing and selling by agents can mean they attract customers looking for pre-Christmas treats, shopping ideas and even Christmas gifts. This is a great way for agents to draw customers in.”
Over-55s specialist Grand UK Holidays has expanded its festive breaks to UK Christmas markets following their debut last winter. Destinations include Ludlow, Worcester, Lincoln, Bath, York, Manchester and Birmingham.
Trains, boats and planes
Titan HiTours has short breaks on the Orient-Express. Trips, starting from £695, include visits to Canterbury or Salisbury combined with a cathedral carol concert and a two-night stay in London.
Great Rail Journeys and Treyn, catering for the grey market, have also added fresh options.
“We’ve always offered European festive breaks, but on the back of our UK success for summer holidays we introduced Scotland, which is a no-brainer for festive breaks, and the historic centres of York and Stratford,” says marketing manager Richard Adams. “The response has been excellent, particularly when it comes to Scottish rail breaks.”
Families can spend the day with Santa aboard Stena Line’s non-landing cruises from Belfast on December 6, 13, 19 and 20.
The city has a colourful Christmas market and Stena’s festive breaks include two-night shopping trips, with accommodation on a bed and breakfast basis and return car ferry crossing between Stranraer and Belfast, from £124 per person, with children staying free.
Alternatively Irish Ferries Holidays offers trips to see the impressive Christmas market in Dublin (for more on the city, see this week’s 48 hours in Dublin feature).
Agents can also dynamically package shopping trips to Belfast from Blackpool and Leeds Bradford with Jet2.com, or from Belfast to Leeds, which hosts a German-style Christmas market.
Family fun
Butlins at Bognor Regis, Minehead and Skegness offers festive fun, food and entertainment for all ages. Three-night Christmas Fantasy breaks on December 10 and 17 lead in at £62 per person and four or seven-night Christmas breaks from December 23 start from £118.
The party continues at Pontin’s five locations, with two-night self-catering Christmas Dreamland breaks priced from £99 for a family of four. Four-night self-catering Christmas breaks lead in at £260 per apartment, and three-night Festive Fillers, from December 27, from £131. Options include half and full-board.
Ho! Ho! Hotels
For clients searching for somewhere to rest after a theatre break or pounding the shopping streets, Radisson Edwardian has 11 properties in London.
Rooms at Leicester Square’s five-star Radisson Edwardian Hampshire start from £165 and there are special Christmas shopping packages.
Hoseasons has apartments in 28 cities, sleeping up to six, and leading in at £129 a night in Lincoln. And for families that want to be king of the castle, the
seven-bedroom 16th-century Castle Moat House in Staffordshire is available for £2,350 over Christmas week.
The von Essen group has plenty of traditional options, including Berkshire’s famous Cliveden, where three-night Christmas breaks are available from £1,330 per person, and The Elms in Worcestershire, where four nights’ all-inclusive costs from £580 per room per night.
Warner Leisure Hotels, catering for adults at 13 hotels across the UK, has four-night Turkey & Tinsel breaks during November and December from £165 per person and four or five-night Christmas packages from £449.
The period between Christmas and New Year is covered, with two and three-night stays leading in at £104 and full-board three-night New Year packages starting at £354.
For clients who want to take the plunge, the St Moritz Hotel & Spa in Cornwall is heating its outdoor pool for Christmas and serving warming post-dip chestnuts and glühwein. Christmas and New Year B&B room rates start at £147.
Finally, several properties in the Cottages4you portfolio will be decorated for Christmas. They include 300-year-old Cherry Tree Cottage in the Yorkshire Dales, which sleeps six and starts at £269 for two nights in December.
Sample product
Superbreak offers a two-night New Year break at the three-star Ramada Livingston, close to Edinburgh, from £180 per person, including breakfast, three-course dinner on December 30, five-course New Year’s Eve gala dinner with pipers at midnight. superbreak.com/agents, 0871 221 4444
Prestige Holidays has a four-night break from December 24 at the atmospheric Star Castle hotel, St Mary’s, Scilly Isles, from £868 per person, including flights from Land’s End, transfers, most meals including a four-course Christmas Day lunch, island cruise and other activities. prestigegrouptravel.co.uk, 01425 480600
