Representatives from Bourne Leisure, which also includes Warner Leisure Hotels, are in the Province meeting media, key travel agents and tour operators.
Bourne, which works closely with Stena Line and Irish Ferries, says it plans to ramp up its presence in Northern Ireland and drive more sales to its products through retail travel agents.
Among those visiting local key agents are Erman Housein, Bourne’s Head of Trade Sales and Marketing, the company’s National Account Manager Louise Tansey and Craig Secker, Bourne Leisure Sales Executive.
Speaking to Northern Ireland Travel News, Erman Housein said: “We see a lot of potential for growth in sales through travel agents here. At the moment our business through agents is about 10 per cent but our aim is drive this forward by increasing our presence in Northern Ireland and through personal contact with the Trade.”
The Haven brand is already strong and well known to the Northern Ireland public but he says there is probably more potential to attract customers back to – or introduce new customers – to one of Butlins three resorts in England, at Bognor Regis, Minehead and Skegness. The three resorts are the last remaining out of the original 10 Butlins founded by Billy Butlin.
“A lot of Northern Ireland people would have visited Butlins at Ayr – now Haven Craig Tara – because of its close proximity to Northern Ireland, and then of course there used to be Butlins in the Republic of Ireland at Mosney many years ago. We will be bringing out our new programmes soon to encourage holidaymakers to the three Butlins resorts in England.”
Perhaps a not-so-well-known arm of the Bourne Leisure operation is the 13 Warner Leisure Hotels in England, the Isle of Wight and North Wales.
Several of the hotels are four-star and six of them are ‘historical hotels’ which specialise in features like fine dining and enjoyment of their attractive grounds. The hotels are exclusively for adults and some are country house hotels while other are in coastal villages.
“This is my first visit to Northern Ireland,” added Erman, “but I see great potential to grow our business here, so we will be back again soon.”
