Olympic Holidays gives priority to hotels

Olympic Holidays has increased the number of hotels featured in its main summer programme.

An expanded second edition Summer Sun 2008 brochure has a wider hotel selection to meet changing client demand.

The 460-page second edition Summer Sun 2008 brochure features hotel and self-catering holidays in mainland Greece, the Greek islands, Cyprus, Tunisia, Turkey, Bulgaria and Egypt’s Red Sea Riviera.

Commercial director Photis Lambrianides said: “We have consciously given priority to hotels over apartments among the properties we have added for next summer.

“There has been a shift in customers’ tastes and preferences and as a result we have contracted more new properties on B&B, half-board and all-inclusive than self-catering for 2008.”

The operator has targeted Crete for expansion, with newly added properties including the five-star Blue Palace Resort & Spa, Aquila Elounda Village and Iberostar Mirabello Beach & Village.

All-inclusive Crete properties new for summer 2008 are the four-star Blue Marine Resort & Spa Hotel, the Arina Sands and Eva Bay Hotel, and the three-star-plus Orion.

“Helped by its size, Crete is one of our strongest sellers. We have already taken a good volume of bookings for 2008 and the new hotels will encourage even more to travel,” Lambrianides said.

Other additions include the four-star Vrissiana in Protaras, Cyprus; the Lindian Village and Lindos Blu in Lindos, Rhodes; the Aegean Plaza in Santorini; and the Barcelo Royal Beach in Sunny Beach, Bulgaria.

Lambrianides said: “We’ve set out to hold prices from last summer and rates for summer 2008 show only fine increases, mainly as a result of hikes in the price of aviation fuel and APD.

“However, we have been able to reduce some prices at certain times of year, such as in the early May off-season period and selectively in the early part of July.”

He added:”In a world of changing booking patterns, we’ve highlighted the advantages of buying a package and emphasised many aspects of a package that can often be taken for granted.”

A record 120 all-inclusive properties are featured and a wide selection of hotels exclusively for the adults.

Bournemouth gets new flights to Larnaca in Cyprus, Corfu and Zante; Exeter has a new summer-long Corfu flight; and Leeds/Bradford introduces two weekly flights to Paphos (Cyprus).

The programme lists summer flight-only prices on all charter flights. They lead in at £169 on Gatwick-Corfu, with departure the second week in May.

by Phil Davies<BR