New Deal Europe Weekly Update on Tourism to the Balkan Region, Week 23
News from the market: UK
This week, as news of a third vaccine comes out, we look at the impact of this on the travel trade. We talk with Andrea Godfrey, Brand Manager of Regent Holidays, a trailblazing tour operator from the UK, which has a long association with the Balkan region of Europe, to see what challenges Covid has brought to tour operating and what difference the vaccine news has made. Andrea also shares some fascinating information from their recent client survey into attitudes to travelling in 2021 and beyond, giving us all an insight into how the market is thinking and adapting to Covid.
NDE: Hi Andrea. Thanks for talking with us today. Can we begin with you explaining to our readers who Regent Holidays are and their position in the market?
AG: Regent Holidays is a medium-sized tour operator based in Bristol, UK. We were founded in 1971 so have been around for quite a few years now. Our founder was Noel Cairns, who opened a small office on the Isle of Wight back in 1970. He’d spent some time travelling through the Balkans and Turkey and wanted to offer the types of holidays he enjoyed — unconventional, unusual and interesting. So we launched group tours to the then People’s Socialist Republic of Albania! Our groups would fly into Podgorica (then called Titograd) and take the bus to the border, where they would walk across and face the border barber if not sufficiently clean-shaven! In the mid-1970s our Bristol office opened under the directorship of Neil Taylor, who offered me my first job in travel after university in the mid 90s. With Neil at the helm, Regent offered tours in communist countries such as Cuba and China, plus countries behind the Iron Curtain. Our Isle of Wight office continued to offer additional unique destinations too such as Iceland and Greenland, which was quite exotic back in 1975. These days we continue to offer group tours and tailormade travel to the Balkans and beyond, and our pioneering spirit continued in the 2000s, as we were the first UK tour operator to offer Kosovo, following its hard fought independence from Serbia.
NDE: So you’ve been with Regent for 25 years now. How has your role in the company changed over that time?
AG:I started in Regent after I graduated from university. My first job was managing the fast growing three Baltic countries — although I still remember my first enquiry was actually for Albania as I had to frantically look for the city code to Tirana! Being a family of just 8 of us back in those days, it was very much hands on deck and get involved with everything including writing brochures and signing our adverts for our own areas. We developed the product, sold the holidays and even tour lead our programmes. After managing an agency in Kiev for a number of years, Neil offered me the role of General Manager of Regent back in the UK, whilst he stood aside to pursue a writing career. In 2004 Regent Holidays was purchased by Western & Oriental Ltd who were based in London, and owned W & O Travel, specialising in luxury holidays. Then in 2015 the luxury ITC Travel Group purchased Western & Oriental Ltd so my role has changed over the years as the company has grown, from being General Manager, who still sold holidays, spoke to clients on a daily basis to a more Brand, product led role — although I still love talking to clients especially face to face at shows such as Destinations.
NDE: 2020 has been a tough year for the travel industry. How has this year been for you and your team?
AG: Like most travel companies it has been, and continues to be, an incredibly tough year, adapting to new norms, working from home and so on. Like most travel companies we have lost a few good people but we have made full use of the Government furlough scheme to protect as many jobs as we can. ITC want to ensure that when travel comes back (and it will) we will be in a strong position to start to grow again.
Like most travel companies we have lost a few good people. The government’s … ever changing policy on travel corridors and quarantining has been undermining, confusing and even more damaging to the industry.
NDE: The news about vaccinations has brought new hope. Have you seen any benefit from this development yet?
AG: I think we are like most travel companies in that we have seen a lot of interest in 2021, and we saw a small spike when this news was announced. Overall whilst the government’s furlough scheme has been a life line for the travel industry, its ever changing policy on travel corridors and quarantining has been undermining, confusing and even more damaging to the industry. The most recent policy announcement will hardly restore confidence. That states that the self-isolation period will be slashed to five days next month with a Covid test when you get back to the UK. This could mean travellers paying privately for tests before they depart to certain destinations which insist on a negative test to gain entry, then pay again on the return to reduce the quarantine to 5 days. The checks are initially expected to cost between £65 and £120 per passenger, meaning it could cost a family of four an extra £960 to get tested before and after their holiday if travelling to certain destinations. A comprehensive testing system before travelling and obviously the vaccine is the only way we can restart travel effectively.
NDE: So will anything change for Regent in the coming months, for instance, will you have to do some things differently?
AG: We are working on electronic brochures over the next month so we will be ready to have these online. These will be vital to support the trade business, which is important to us at Regent. Each booking or quote takes much longer these days as we have to explain current restrictions to the client and clarify the risk for both the client and us — mostly in terms of the policies of the airlines we are using for certain itineraries. Low cost carriers present the most risk as you have to issue the tickets straight away, whereas some of the traditional airlines allow us to hold flights until closer to the departure days.
NDE: And looking further into the future, do you think travel will be any different, and if so what impact will that have for you and your client base?
AG: We actually sent out a client survey a few weeks back to ascertain how our clients were feeling and what were their thoughts and plans on travel in the future. We had a great response, especially from our clients who like to travel on our group tours. We found that over 58% of responders are definitely planning to travel within the next 12 months. 39% are already planning and researching their next trip, with Central and Eastern Europe, Caucasus and Central Asia, and Northern Europe the most popular regions. Only 4% have decided not to travel in the next 12 months. Surprisingly, when many have written off city breaks as too risky and crowded, 40% of our clients expressed an interest in visiting a city within the next year. 63% of respondents cited ‘small group tours’ as their preferred way to holiday. We have a fairly extensive programme of group tours to the Balkans for 2021 — Albania & the Balkans (2 departures), Highlights of Albania (2 departures), Kosovo Short Break Group (which fits both short break and group tour!), 2 different group tours to Serbia and 1 group tour to Bosnia. All our small group tours are for a maximum 16 passengers.
58% of responders are definitely planning to travel within the next 12 months. 39% are already planning and researching their next trip, with Central and Eastern Europe, Caucasus and Central Asia, and Northern Europe the most popular regions.
Reflecting concerns over the many holidays that have been cancelled or rescheduled throughout this pandemic year, a staggering 81% of our clients said that ‘flexibility to amend a holiday without charge’ would be a factor influencing confidence to book, higher even than the 63% who would require insurance to include Covid-19 cover. That is what we need to work on and ensure that we can offer such flexibility, not hiding behind our booking conditions.
NDE: Thanks for sharing this with us. It’s a fascinating insight, and great news for Central and Eastern Europe. You have a long association with this region, so what are people looking for when they book a holiday to the Balkans with you, and how does this differ from the other areas you sell, if at all?
AG: Clients are definitely looking for that tailor-made expertise when booking holidays to the Balkans — certainly being able to combine several countries seamlessly in one trip. We offer different types of yours which appeal to different types of travellers. Our ‘Essential’ holidays are great for those travellers who enjoy exploring under their own steam, safe in the knowledge all their accommodation, transfers and travel are taken care of by us — and being able to travel on public transport is important to get a real experience of a country. Our ‘Cultured Landscapes’ type of holidays offer greater in-depth exploration with highly qualified experienced private guide and driver throughout and many countries in the Balkans are brilliant at providing these types of holidays. The quality of guiding from our local partners in places such as Albania and Bosnia etc is just phenomenal.
NDE: Staying with the Balkan region, many providers here are focusing on sustainable tourism projects as the future of tourism in their region. Is sustainable tourism something that your clients are looking for?
AG: We asked our clients this in our recent survey and the importance of sustainability when planning a holiday received an average score of 6.5. Certain countries within the Balkans such as Slovenia are forging ahead with sustainability and green tourism at the heart of their tourism development. There are lots of opportunities for the Balkans to avoid mass tourism, which has been proved to bring very little to local communities and can actually destroy destinations. So if sustainable tourism means working with small scale, local, family-run companies to offer authentic cultural experiences and adventure travel, then that is certainly something we, and our clients, are looking for.
NDE: Are the suppliers in the Balkans offering what your clients need, or would you like to see some things done differently?
AG: Yes we have some of the best partners in the Balkans in terms of knowledge, support, flexibility and passion. I think our challenge is for multi-destination holidays, and deciding which great partner to use. Although most companies can offer all of the Balkans, we like to use our long standing partners in Albania, Bosnia etc — we do like to keep it local.
Questions by Robert Dee, co-founder of New Deal Europe, the only travel market platform dedicated to generating business to the Greater Balkan region of Europe. Apply to New Deal Europe Marketplace and Forum 2021 at www.newdealeurope.com.
