SUNSWEPT Resorts has switched it representation in Britain from its own UK office to Advantage Leisure.
The move comes after SunSwept’s senior sales and marketing manager Marie-Helene Rodriguez, who ran the representation from the UK, decided to leave the company after having a baby.
Advantage Leisure now plans to begin the repositioning of LaSOURCE in Grenada, one of SunSwept’s three properties in the Caribbean. This will loosen the marketing ties with SunSwept’s LeSPORT and its ‘body holiday’ concept and reposition the brand as a general resort with spa facilities.
Advantage Leisure account manager Nadine Cuell said: “The original launch of LaSOURCE was done along the lines that the owner, Leon Taylor, wanted to go into marketing partnership with LeSPORT. This was so the brand had immediate market recognition as a body holiday. But the thinking now is it is established enough and it should be rolled out under a different identity.
“SunSwept is an unusual account because normally a client would come to us to get more coverage with the tour operators. But SunSwept is already well established so it’s a much more sophisticated exercise. We plan to enhance relationships, getting operators not to hand back so many unbooked rooms, by talking to marketing managers, agency sales departments and organising joint promotional activities.”
Reservation staff training sessions are also planned to educate them on the selling of upgraded rooms. SunSwept currently does 65% of its business out of the UK.