Face to Face: Pip Tyler, Neilson
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How has business been at Neilson?
Nothing’s easy but people are still going away. The Victorians built it into us that we need holidays [therefore it is seen as a necessity] and now the battle has been to come away with us. It has been difficult with the staycation but it’s looking good. People say this year is a challenge with the Euros and Olympics this year but there is always something happening that means we have to battle for sales.
Recently we have added new bases and expanded our Turkey resort which is going very well. We just hosted 100 agents in Turkey and got 100% scores from them, they spent six days in Turkey and said they preferred us to the Hilton.
Greece is difficult as customers are more savvy and don’t want to go away if they feel their holiday will be affected, but all the guys in our resorts say business is normal.
How was Neilson’s ski season in 2011/12?
Last winter some were a bit spooked as the snow did not fall until a bit later but it picked up and we had one of the best ski seasons. Some skied right through April in France so the snow came through in the end. People are revved up for this winter and groups are getting together now.
We have done a lot of research on ski and people are still going skiing but will go to better or higher resorts or better hotels. We are finding people are prepared to still travel but are being more picky, however the beginners market is suffering. We have found some good beginner resorts and introduced all-inclusive headline prices [that include ski passes, boot and ski hire etc] to help settle prices as there is a lot more added on. There are some great deals to be had in places such as Andorra and Bulgaria.
Our chalet programme has also been going very well as the customers know where their budget goes. Soon we will have up-coming celebrity chef Chris Coubrough, known as the ‘Flying Kiwi’ to come in and dust up our offering. He runs a small chain of gastro pubs/inns and will send chefs from those to work in our resorts.
Which sectors of the business have performed well recently?
We launched our lakes and mountains programme a few years ago and it took a while to get our heads around it as we are so used to doing beach holidays. We originally went to our winter suppliers but now have fantastic programmes for the summer in places such as Norway, Croatia, Slovenia and Switzerland. It’s now our fastest growing programme, although it’s mostly ‘hike and bike’ not ‘lake and cake’. We do go to the beautiful chocolate box towns but do activities too.
Our yacht programme is very popular and we have worked hard to upgrade and renew the boats, some of which are now bigger. The biggest part is teaching people to sail and we are the largest school in the world which ranges from beginners to experts.
In terms of our beach clubs, we have added one a year but not this year as we expanded the one in Turkey and there have been refurbishments, which we are happy with. We are always looking for new beach clubs and got an exciting one in our plans. We have nine already and we lease/operate them ourselves so we can control the quality; we’ve had great feedback.
Some holiday companies are facing a backlash over their all-inclusive resort offering, how is Neilson tackling sustainability issues?
Our active holidays have always been about seeing a destination and we do not want clients to feel grieved to stay in the resort. People really like that and the resorts are locally integrated. We encourage people to go out and we’ve ‘upped our ante’ in that area. All staff are locally employed and we buy food locally so we do spend a lot of money in the communities too. We got involved with The Travel Foundation and look very hard into it, especially our yachts programme, which is very green. Our hotels are all tested by Travelife and we had our yachts done too. We use around 30 tonnes of water so local farmers often take some away to use on their fields and we have installed solar power and green management systems throughout.
What new Neilson elements should travel agents be aware of?
Ever since we started operations 35 years ago we have been great supporters of retail and more than 60% of bookings are from travel agents. Using the flexible trips software that Thomas Cook developed has really helped us as it means we can add low-cost flying and means agents can look through the database and get a quote live on their screens, but we also have a dedicated travel agent helpline for their questions. There are guys on the road explaining the ski and yacht product which is going well. Travel agents generally seem to like us, we offer good commission, the transactions are high and the repeat business is massive. We are here to help and while some agents were scared off by ski 20 years ago, it has become accessible now. If a travel agent gets in contact we are always willing to provide training, send resources and support consumer events.
Otherwise, our summer 2013 programme is just on sale and the brochure goes out in August. We offer a virtual rep which means customers can constantly be in touch by mobile and email and that is how we offer support in resort now.