Olympic Antidotes

By Paull Tickner

When massive events like the Olympic Games come to town, they bring with them many short and longer term benefits. However, they also create a lot of unhelpful negatives, like outrageous trans-Atlantic airfares, high hotel costs and perceptions of gridlocked traffic and overcrowded streets. This is what London is facing as it prepares to host the Games next summer.

I've attended four trade shows this autumn — see you at the Luxury Travel Expo in December? — and whenever I've broached the subject, travel agent interest at best has been minimal — but not for the reasons given above.

The lack of demand is purely and simply because their clients just aren't interested in sporting events of this kind and those that are would prefer to watch them on the TV in the privacy of their own home, enjoying the action replays and the six-pack that's close to hand!
In addition, the Olympics and its immediate run-up period don't seem to be factoring on most agents' calendars. Most customers have the U.K. and Ireland on their agenda for the April to late June period (make that early July to include the Hampton Court Flower Show) and then for the first two months of autumn. However, families with children still plan to travel to the U.K. during the summer, when the children are out of school.

Greatly relieved, I can then wax lyrical about the many other, often annual events, celebrations and festivals which will be held next summer. These can be successfully used as the foundation for a customized tour for their anglophile clients or better still, which can be imaginatively developed into a small group of 10-15.  At this point the 12,000-mile round trip suddenly becomes worthwhile as we then talk about ideas such as the following:

Tours of your Bookshelf: Entertaining literary tours that will appeal to fans of Masterpiece Theatre as they look at Jane Austen's life and times, Harry Potter, Inspector Morse and  enjoy an "on location" visit to Downton Abbey, aka Highclere Castle.

Alice in Wonderland: Alice's Day takes place each year in Oxford at the beginning of July. With a bit of creative thinking you can bring together the two spectacular castles at Windsor and Warwick, an Elizabethan England experience at the Shakespeare Houses, Independence Day at Sulgrave Manor (George Washington's ancestral home). Combine that with a close encounter with the Queen of Hearts, the Mad Hatter, the White Rabbit and the Dormouse during the Alice's Day weekend.

Marketing tip. See if one of your clients has a young granddaughter with golden tresses. Put her into a blue pinafore dress and as Alice and invite her to become the Pied Piper for two to three families to experience this tour together as a small group of 15-plus.

The Charles Dickens 200th anniversary: Using either the June or December Dickens Festivals as the main event, start the tour at the beginning with a visit to his birthplace in the great waterfront city of Portsmouth.  While you're there, add some salty tales with a visit to HMS Victory and the Historic Dockyard and a pub crawl around Old Portsmouth.

The Other Olympics: Next year marks the 400th anniversary of the first attempt to revive the games of Ancient Greece, Robert Dover's Olimpick Games (note the spelling). They will be reenacted next year and will include many non-traditional sports that were, nonetheless, included in the 1612 edition, such as singlestick, wrestling, jumping in sacks, dancing and shin kicking. See www.olimpickgames.co.uk  These Olimpicks take place every year in the picturesque market town of Chipping Campden and offer a very good excuse for a 3-4 night stay in the Cotswolds.

Celebrating Shakespeare: The World Shakespeare Festival starts on the Bard's Birthday (April 23) and runs through to November. With the Globe Theatre in London and the Royal Shakespeare Theatre in Stratford upon Avon, celebrate the event with a front stage backstage bells and whistles tour for the patrons of your local theatre.

Have Easel, Will Travel to Cornwall: Welcome to Cornwall, the consummate travel less, see more destination that's a world far removed from London. Here, travelers can experience King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table, internationally renowned horticultural masterpieces, great castles and treasure filled stately homes.

They can visit outstanding art collections at the Tate Gallery, Penlee House, the Barbara Hepworth Sculpture Garden and the renowned Porthmeor Studios, plus attend plays under the stars at the Minack Theatre.

Hopefully, airfares for the spring and early summer will be competitive.  If you run into problems with London hotel prices, turn this to your advantage and make 2012 the year when you successfully started selling the English countryside where rates and availability are invariably better.

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

Comments