Coach Holiday News

The Balmoral hotel in Edinburgh has been named Scotland’s hotel of the year at the Scottish / Northern Ireland AA Hospitality Awards.

The hotel, part of the Rocco Forte Collection, was recognised for demostrating excellence and success within their chosen category, showing a significant improvement in the proceding 12-18 months and proving their dedication to raising industry standards and enhancing both their guest and diner experiences.

General manager Ivan Artolli said: “I am delighted The Balmoral has been recognised as Scotland’s Hotel of the Year within these prestigious awards. This is an outstanding achievement for the Balmoral and the Rocco Forte Collection, and is testament to The Balmoral’s commitemnt to providing an outstanding experience for its guests, with the highest levels of customer care.”

The future of one of the last remaining German U-boats has been safeguarded on Merseyside after a visitor attraction to house it was given the go-ahead. The future of the submarine U-534 had become uncertain when the Warship Preservation Trust in Birkenhead closed last year. Merseytravel has now been given planning permission by Wirral council to open a new attraction at Woodside Ferry Terminal, which should open by next summer

With 19m single adults in the UK, no single supplements is capturing the market for over-55s holiday specialist

Grand UK Holidays is wooing solo travellers back to book its UK tours on the back of a recent report into the cost of travelling alone. The over-55s specialist operator says it has long recognised the importance of having no single supplements on its UK holidays.

The Which? magazine report earlier this month found solo travellers are getting a raw deal on price. And the market is growing, with analysts Mintel estimating almost 19 million adults in the UK are single - that’s 39% of the adult population, and the figure is set to rise to 41% by 2011. Single people account for almost a third of domestic trips. Read the rest of this story »

The UK’s top ten beaches have been announced in a new survey by holiday cottage company cottages4u.

The survey, in association with Qualitycoast.org, has revealed top ten beaches for beachcombing which have been launched by BBC presenter of Coast and zoologist Miranda Krestovnikoff.

The top ten are:

1. Runswick Bay, North Yorkshire
2. Newgale Beach, Pembrokeshire
3. Westward Ho! Beach, Devon
4. Cowes, Isle of Wight
5. Camber, East Sussex
6. Frinton Beach, Essex
7. Herne Bay East, Kent
8. Barmston, East Yorkshire
9. Combe Martin Beach, Devon
10. Cresswell Dunes & Foreshore, Northumberland

Coast: The Journey Continues - Price: £9.83 GBP

The over-65s market is becoming one of the larger buying groups of adventure holidays among the older generations, a new survey has revealed.

Shearings Holidays sales and marketing director Karen Gee said an online survey of 1,068 people by Omnibus revealed one in 12 of the 65-plus market are booking activity and adventure holidays. The survey showed four times as many over-65s book adventure holidays as 55 to 64-year-olds. She added: “I thought it was fascinating how many over-65s are looking for action and adventure in their holidays and no longer just want to fly and flop.”

The survey revealed 45 to 55-year-olds take the most holidays, with 10% taking more than four holidays a year – the average is 6.9%.

Gee said this age group is also cornering the domestic holiday market, with 56.3% of 45 to 55-year-olds taking at least one UK break a year, the highest number in the survey.

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WA Shearings has been rebranded Shearings Holidays in a bid to attract younger holidaymakers from outside its established coach-holiday customer-base.

The company, originally formed after a £200 million merger of coach specialists Wallace Arnold and Shearings in January 2005, is also expanding its range of holidays under the helm of new chief executive Denis Wormwell.

The Wallace Arnold initials have been dropped because they were closely associated with coaching and the company wants to highlight the fact it offers holidays including flights, self-drive breaks, cruises and its own hotels.

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