Beyond theQueen’s Diamond Jubilee

Supplement toTravel Agent Professional

England:

The Beatles 50th AnniversaryFor Grandparents and their 10 year old Beatles-mad grandchildren,a corporation CEO and his wife as well as groups being sponsoredby Golden Oldies radio stations, interest in the Beatles is still asstrong as ever. Even the Duchess of Cornwall specifically requested avisit to the Beatles Story during her recent visit to Liverpool.Think about and then list all those clients of yours who were teenagerswhen the Fab Four took America by storm in 1962. That’s your initialtarget audience for a London, Liverpool and the Beatles trip downMemory Lane to Penny Lane, Strawberry Fields and all the otherplaces featured in their songs. Many of them will have never beenoffered a chance to do something like this. Grab the opportunity andthink about a customised itinerary that will bring the legends to life. Two bits of advice:

• Because there’s a lot to see and do, don’t try to do it all in a day. Ifyou do, it’ll sell your customers short. Take two days and do it properly.

• If you can get to Atlanta, Chicago, Las Vegas, Newark, New Yorkor Philadelphia, check out the non-stops into the northern gateway ofManchester. With shorter Immigration and Customs lines, it’s less thanan hour from Liverpool and then just over 2 hours to London by train

In less than 3 weeks time, our nation will be celebrating Her Majesty the Queen’sDiamond Jubilee. Here in the Cotswolds market town of Chipping Campden around700 of us Monarchists will be staging our own street party. It will be quite a weekendbecause on a hill overlooking the sleepy town we’ll also be enjoying the 400th anniver-sary of the Robert Dover’s Olimpick Games – shin kicking and all that jazz!! While theOlympics proper takes place between 27th July – 12th August, there’s a great deal moregoing on for you to get excited about for the latter part of 2012 and into 2013.

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Beyond Her Majesty the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee

The WorldShakespeareFestivalLaunched on the Bard’sBirthday on 23rd Apriland running through untilNovember 2012, thisextensively publicised cel-ebration of the world’sgreatest playwright is giv-ing you the chance to puttogether tailor made tours,which will be warmly wel-comed by your local the-atre contacts who arealways looking for newfund raising ideas. You’resure to know an English lit-erature or drama teacherwho might also be veryinterested in what youcould propose for SpringBreak 2013.Buttressed by front andbackstage tours and per-formances at the RoyalShakespeare Theatre inStratford and the GlobeTheatre in London,between us we can useour imaginations to fill theintervening days withunique and memorableexperiences.Shakespeare's Globe Theatre London

TwoDestinations toWatch...Because I keep a very careful eyeon new grass root product develop-ments, watch out for the new ideasI’ll be flagging up on:

• Cornwall, a 5-6 night standalone destination. In addition to itsamazing gardens (particularlybeautiful between March and May),its Arthurian legends and literaryconnections (think about RosamundPilcher and Daphne du Maurier), afabulous range new travel experi-ences are being driven to the sur-face by the arts community in St.Ives and Penzance.

• Oxfordshire, where you’ll soonsee some new itineraries that willtick all the boxes especially forGarden tours and Girls Getaways.Being so close to Heathrow, it’s theperfect place in which to leave yourjetlag before heading into Londonto sightsee and shop ‘til you drop!

...and a Gateway to WatchWith the pressures building on London Heathrow and Gatwick,keep an eye open for news of nonstop flights into Birmingham.Located in the heart of England with Shakespeare Country andthe Cotswolds on its doorstep, their airside kerbside service injust 30 minutes has to be a very much better way to start anyUK visit. Their new runway extension will be open early in2014 and while only United Continental fly non-stop fromNewark to BHX, I expect other airlines to announce new routesinto this very user friendly gateway.With your jetlag parked in the English countryside your cus-tomers will arrive in London in far better shape and ready forwhat our capital city has to offer them.

For further tour information please contact Paull Tickner at pjtickner@yahoo.co.uk

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Cover: Blenheim Palace, ancestral home of the Dukes of Marlborough

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