An agency specialising in holidays for swingers and naturists has enjoyed a surge in enquiry levels following the release of the film Fifty Shades of Grey.
Surrey-based Intimate Places, a member of the Global Travel Group, was set up just over a year ago, but owner David Batley reported a significant increase in the number of hits on its website and enquiries in the past week from markets as far afield as the US and Denmark.
Batley, who also runs a mainstream travel agency, decided to court the national press to capitalise on the hype surrounding the release of the film of EL James’ raunchy book in UK cinemas last Friday.
“The fact there is so much hype has not done us any harm,” he said. “There will be an awful lot of people inspired by the film to do other things and we are getting a lot of interest as a result of the publicity generated.
“We had 3,000 hits on our site on Monday night, a lot of whom were from Denmark.”
Batley admitted it had been difficult to generate business in the past, adding: “It is now starting to come together; we have a database of 5,000 clients.”
Most customers would be too embarrassed to ask for this type of holiday at a mainstream agency, he said.
Batley’s three staff all go on swingers or naturist holidays.
“It is very much a trust issue,” he said. “People are not embarrassed because our staff understand. To me, it is no different from selling a fishing holiday, but no other UK agent is offering it to the same extent.”
The agency tailor-makes flight-inclusive packages with hotels catering for swingers and naturists, mainly in the Caribbean and US, after asking Global to put contracts in place, and offers cruises on privately chartered ships.