AITO confident of rise in specialist holidays

As a result of “a distinct trend towards specialist holidays”, The Association of Independent Tour Operators (AITO) has announced a significant increase in its marketing activity for 2003.

The specialist tour operators’ organisation plans to print 3 million copies of its annual brochure, the AITO Holiday Directory – an increase of 1 million compared with 2002’s print run and an increase of 2 million compared with the 2001 print run. The aim is to promote awareness of AITO, its “enormous range of holiday ideas and destinations available to consumers”, and to produce tangible business for its members.

The Directory is mailed to AITO’s own database of enquirers and is inserted into a range of consumer publications – national press and magazines – across the UK. AITO are considering the idea of racking AITO Directories in CARTA (Campaign for Real Travel Agents) shops and also to distributing the Directory to CARTA agents’ mailing lists.

Commenting on the marketing campaign, Chairman Martin Garland (Expressions Holidays) said: “We’ve taken a vote on the proposed marketing initiative for 2003 and the results indicate a clear mandate from members to move forward in a very positive vein. Close to 75% of members responded to the vote and, of those who voted, nearly 70% voted for the 3-million print run compared with the 30% who voted for a 2-million print run.

“This is a huge achievement for AITO as a trade association and a very confident move on the part of its members. We believe that it demonstrates that the niche sectors in which our members work are out-performing the mass-market sector. There is a distinct trend towards specialist holidays, and AITO’s marketing drive over the past two years has doubtless had some part to play in this.”

Prior to the current three-year marketing campaign, AITO produced around 50,000 copies of its Holiday Directory annually. The marketing initiative, led by AITO Council Member Richard Hearn (Inntravel) and AITO’s former Deputy Chairman, Mike Bruce-Mitford (VFB Holidays) has seen a totally redesigned Directory, now in A5 format, as well as the dramatically-increased circulation. Copies of the free 2002 AITO Holiday Directory are available from 0870 751 8080.

AITO also announced plans for further investment in its website, including a redesign of the site, which will relaunch in July. Mr Garland said: “The new version of the website will enable both simple and complex searches to be undertaken. We believe that travel agents will find it to be a useful resource and we are confident that it will bring new business leads to member companies.”