Gold Medal parent hails agents for buying into peaks campaigns

Dnata said each of its brand-specific campaigns, which ran until 29 February, had been designed to capitalise on trends across the long-haul, luxury, cruise and touring sectors.

Pure Luxury recorded a 40% year-on-year increase in Maldives and New York bookings, leading the way for the brand alongside Abu Dhabi, Dubai, Las Vegas and Florida. Dnata said "most" Pure Luxury sales during peaks were lates departing in February and March, as well as a substantial number of festive breaks for next winter.

Dnata’s cruise brand, Cruise Plus, celebrated its best week on record during peaks, and experienced growth across all cruise sub-sectors. This was led by demand for luxury and ultra-luxury cruise, both of which achieved triple digit year-on-year growth.

The number of agents booking with Cruise Plus, meanwhile, increased by 15% year-on-year, with more than 60% of bookings with the brand coming from couples.

Finally, touring specialist Incredible Journeys broke its own sales record three weeks in a row during peaks, and achieved a new record booking. Lapland achieved the highest growth in bookings, followed by Sri Lanka, Peru and Japan.

A third more agents (34%) booked with the brand during peaks 2024 than did in 2023, with average booking values increasing by around 14%.

"All of our B2B brands had a successful peaks and achieved some exceptional records," James continued. "It was great to see agents picking up the phones and calling our expert teams more than ever before, with call volumes in substantial growth year-on-year for each brand – Gold Medal (+20%), Pure Luxury (+20%), Cruise Plus (+42%) and Incredible Journeys (+100%).

"Not only this, but it is apparent agents have increased trust in our Gold Medal website. The web alone took more than 200% more bookings and achieved an increase of more than 200% in sales, a reflection of the substantial investments made across the last 12 months."

James added: "We are constantly looking for ways to expand our product portfolio and provide agents with the most relevant and competitive offers. As we look ahead to the rest of 2024, this will continue to be a focus of our brands with more exciting campaigns, brochures and opportunities to inspire travel, still to come."