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Travel industry urged to ditch ‘negative’ Black Friday
A UK holiday park operator is urging the UK tourism industry to ditch Black Friday deals and get on board with a positive new event called ‘Sunshine Monday’.
Fed up with the negative connotations associated with Black Friday, from unpleasant scenes in shops to being spammed with thousands of marketing emails, Milton Keynes-based Bridge Leisure wants to offer a more positive experience for customers without them missing out on a good deal.
CEO Andrew Howe said: "Pretty much every retailer in the country now has a Black Friday deal.
"This year, when we were discussing what we should do, we felt that the name Black Friday and all the negative perception around it is totally at odds with an industry which is all about creating happy memories for families, friends and loved ones.
"We do a lot of work with a charity called Give us Time, where we donate holidays to military families in need of rest and rehabilitation, so we really understand the important role holidays play in health and wellbeing.
"We also know Monday can be the most difficult day of the week for people, so Monday seemed the perfect day to launch our tourism alternative.
"We hope Sunshine Monday will be a concept the tourism industry can get behind and that any offers associated with the day will help people afford a holiday and give them something to look forward to next year."
Sunshine Monday will launch on November 25 across the websites and Facebook channels of the nine UK holiday parks owned by Bridge Leisure.
Last week, TravelMole reported how Which? was warning customers to beware of too-good-to-be-true Black Friday travel deals.
Lisa
Lisa joined Travel Weekly nearly 25 years ago as technology reporter and then sailed around the world for a couple of years as cruise correspondent, before becoming deputy editor. Now freelance, Lisa writes for various print and web publications, edits Corporate Traveller’s client magazine, Gateway, and works on the acclaimed Remembering Wildlife series of photography books, which raise awareness of nature’s most at-risk species and helps to fund their protection.
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