Girls Getaways
to London and the Cotswolds
By Paull Tickner
When returning home from North American sales trips, I used to while away the time immersed in a good book or walking from one end of the terminal to the other before being incarcerated in a flying metal tube for eight hours or so.
That changed after the 2010 ASTA Trade Show in Orlando, when I took a much closer look at the business cards I'd collected and discovered that over 70% of them were for female travel agents. It happened again after the Ensemble Travel Group conference and it has been repeated at every travel trade event since, sometimes with the ratio exceeding 80%.
Returning home, I spoke to a number of my more creative suppliers and have found that there's an Aladdin's Cave of eye-catching bright ideas for all-woman tour groups.
As I live in the ancient Cotswold market town of Chipping Campden, I decided to concentrate my attention on this neck of the woods.
So far, I've discovered:
• A number of award-winning tea rooms that can be brought together as tea room tours, one to the north Cotswolds, the other in the south of the region;
• A chef who helps to create a Strawberries, Lavender and Roses tour;
• A textiles and ceramics programme that brings together William Morris and the Arts and Crafts Movement;
• A Foodie Tour which includes an evening at the famous Pudding Club;
• In nearby Stratford upon Avon, a tour of the Shakespeare houses that looks more closely at the lives of women in Elizabethan England;
• An antiques trail that meanders through picturesque villages like Broadway, Stow on the Wold and Tetbury;
• A couple of golf courses that will arrange a Sollheim Cup tournament for women golfers as part of a Golf, Gardens and Antiques package.
Returning to London, your clients can take an 'Odd Men and Necessary Women' talk and tour of Blenheim Palace which gives a colourful insight into life above and below stairs at one of our must see stately homes. Alternatively you can take a Miss Alice's Behind the Scenes tour which shows how she lovingly looked after the treasure filled Waddesdon Manor, home of the Rothschild family.
Taking another route back to the capital, you can include a visit to Woburn Abbey, which is where the English tradition of taking afternoon tea is said to have been introduced by Duchess Anna Maria, wife of the Seventh Duke of Bedford. Not far away from here, you'll also find Kathy Brown's Edible Garden.
Topped and tailed with London, these ideas are being promoted by a number of travel agents across America and in a couple of cases, they are trying to increase numbers by offering ideas that will appeal to husbands. In the Cotswolds, the options include visits to microbreweries, a full day at the fascinating Heritage Motor Centre at Gaydon and tutored whisky or real ale tastings.
Between January and March, I'll be attending a number of regionally based U.K. trade shows and from these face to face discussions, new ideas will emerge for "Girls' Getaways" to destinations that are within an hour of London. Having Portobello Road Market, Petticoat Lane, Harrods and West End Shows as part of the itinerary will ensure their saleability.
One final point: If you're keen to develop a UK Girls Getaway programme and you're a CTC, CTA or CTIE, think about updating and expanding your knowledge by joining me on the seven-day, six-night Education on Location programme that I've created for the Travel Institute. It has as its main event a full day at the annual Best of Britain and Ireland trade show, where you'll be able to talk face to face with suppliers whose knowledge and enthusiasm will be hard to resist.
Paull Tickner, creator of Special Interest Britain, is affiliated with the Greatdays Travel Group. For over 30 years, he has been developing and operating customized niche travel programs for the United Kingdom and Ireland. For more information, visit his Web site at www.greatdays.co.uk and E-mail him at pjtickner@yahoo.co.uk
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