Forty-year-old Malta specialist trade brand Belleair Holidays, which ceased trading last October, has been acquired by Alfendo, the parent company of JTA Travel Group.
The business will be led by senior JTA Travel Group Executive Dave Green, who will also take up the position of Belleair Managing Director.
Dave was joint Managing Director for Belleair from 2014-2017 under the previous Holiday Malta Co. Ltd ownership.
“When we heard that Nigel and Steve (Crownshield) had decided to close the business, we were determined that this historic travel brand wouldn’t be allowed to bite the dust,” he said.
“Belleair is a brand that agents have loved for over 40 years as the ‘go to’ operator for the Maltese Islands and beyond, we aim to bring that back, stronger than ever before.
“The brand acquisition is complete and will have a brand new, agent only – user friendly Belleair trade site up and running and ready to take bookings from mid-May.”
He said JTA Travel will ‘aim to make it easy for agents’ to promote the Maltese islands with a new booking engine.
A new trade-only agent site is launching soon.
“We absolutely know that UK consumers love the Maltese Islands, the diversity of the product and the inclusivity of the warm friendly people. The Islands have a year-round appeal and are located close enough to the UK to go for an action-packed weekend break, a mid-week culture fest, a two-week chill in the sun or even a long stay during the cold UK winter months – which we believe will be very popular next winter, especially against the backdrop of rising costs in the UK,” added Dave.
To complement the Malta offering, other launch destinations will include Croatia, Cyprus, Egypt, Greece, Italy, Morocco, Qatar, Tunisia, Turkey.
JTA said agents will be offered ‘highly competitive’ prices, plus incentives through the Belleair / JTA Rewards programme.
Fiona Morgan from the previous Belleair team will join as Specialist Product Manager.
“Our aim is to recruit and retain experience and specialist knowledge and plan to get Belleair Holidays firing on all cylinders very soon, so we can support our wonderful trade colleagues and partners once again,” added Dave.
JTA Group CEO Wayne Darrock said: ” We are delighted to have added such an iconic brand as Belleair to our business. Belleair will operate as a separate entity to our other brands due to its specialist nature, we will still add the JTA dynamic culture to modernise and increase its product offering to all UK trade partners.”
The post JTA Travel Group parent acquires closed Malta-specialist Belleair Holidays appeared first on Travel Gossip.
Continue reading...
The business will be led by senior JTA Travel Group Executive Dave Green, who will also take up the position of Belleair Managing Director.
Dave was joint Managing Director for Belleair from 2014-2017 under the previous Holiday Malta Co. Ltd ownership.
“When we heard that Nigel and Steve (Crownshield) had decided to close the business, we were determined that this historic travel brand wouldn’t be allowed to bite the dust,” he said.
“Belleair is a brand that agents have loved for over 40 years as the ‘go to’ operator for the Maltese Islands and beyond, we aim to bring that back, stronger than ever before.
“The brand acquisition is complete and will have a brand new, agent only – user friendly Belleair trade site up and running and ready to take bookings from mid-May.”
He said JTA Travel will ‘aim to make it easy for agents’ to promote the Maltese islands with a new booking engine.
A new trade-only agent site is launching soon.
“We absolutely know that UK consumers love the Maltese Islands, the diversity of the product and the inclusivity of the warm friendly people. The Islands have a year-round appeal and are located close enough to the UK to go for an action-packed weekend break, a mid-week culture fest, a two-week chill in the sun or even a long stay during the cold UK winter months – which we believe will be very popular next winter, especially against the backdrop of rising costs in the UK,” added Dave.
To complement the Malta offering, other launch destinations will include Croatia, Cyprus, Egypt, Greece, Italy, Morocco, Qatar, Tunisia, Turkey.
JTA said agents will be offered ‘highly competitive’ prices, plus incentives through the Belleair / JTA Rewards programme.
Fiona Morgan from the previous Belleair team will join as Specialist Product Manager.
“Our aim is to recruit and retain experience and specialist knowledge and plan to get Belleair Holidays firing on all cylinders very soon, so we can support our wonderful trade colleagues and partners once again,” added Dave.
JTA Group CEO Wayne Darrock said: ” We are delighted to have added such an iconic brand as Belleair to our business. Belleair will operate as a separate entity to our other brands due to its specialist nature, we will still add the JTA dynamic culture to modernise and increase its product offering to all UK trade partners.”
The post JTA Travel Group parent acquires closed Malta-specialist Belleair Holidays appeared first on Travel Gossip.
Continue reading...
