New tour operator Simply Cuba has described the reaction from the trade to its launch last week as ‘overwhelming’.
The trade-only operator has been set up by Alan Meadows, who was Business Development Manager at Live Cuba before it closed down last October.
He is being backed by Adarsh Shah, who was Operations Manager at The Holiday Place, parent of Cuba Holidays, which Alan ran prior to its collapse in 2019.
“We had a meeting at World Travel Market last year and decided that as no-one has come to fill the gap, there was an opening for us to launch a new Cuba specialist,” said Alan.
Simply Cuba is selling holidays right across the island, but Alan said the most popular packages so far are Havana and Varadero twin centres.
While he admitted that the US decision in January 2021 not to allow anyone who has been to Cuba since then to enter the States without a visa had affected the market, he said some holidaymakers were still keen to travel to the Caribbean island.
“The response we have had from travel agents has been fantastic,” said Alan.
“In fact, it has been overwhelming. We have had far more enquiries than we were expecting, it has been a pleasant surprise and a quite humbling to see that agents still have a desire to sell Cuba.”
Simply Cuba has two reservation staff in the UK as well as a support team in Cuba.
“Since COVID, standards in some hotels have dropped a little bit, but we have people on the ground to make sure that we highlight the best hotels that have been maintained their standards,” added Alan.
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The trade-only operator has been set up by Alan Meadows, who was Business Development Manager at Live Cuba before it closed down last October.
He is being backed by Adarsh Shah, who was Operations Manager at The Holiday Place, parent of Cuba Holidays, which Alan ran prior to its collapse in 2019.
“We had a meeting at World Travel Market last year and decided that as no-one has come to fill the gap, there was an opening for us to launch a new Cuba specialist,” said Alan.
Simply Cuba is selling holidays right across the island, but Alan said the most popular packages so far are Havana and Varadero twin centres.
While he admitted that the US decision in January 2021 not to allow anyone who has been to Cuba since then to enter the States without a visa had affected the market, he said some holidaymakers were still keen to travel to the Caribbean island.
“The response we have had from travel agents has been fantastic,” said Alan.
“In fact, it has been overwhelming. We have had far more enquiries than we were expecting, it has been a pleasant surprise and a quite humbling to see that agents still have a desire to sell Cuba.”
Simply Cuba has two reservation staff in the UK as well as a support team in Cuba.
“Since COVID, standards in some hotels have dropped a little bit, but we have people on the ground to make sure that we highlight the best hotels that have been maintained their standards,” added Alan.
The post Simply Cuba ‘overwhelmed’ with response from agents appeared first on Travel Gossip.
Continue reading...
