Hotels

Karisma Hotels & Resorts

Karisma has “Gourmet Inclusive” hotels, resorts and villas in Mexico, Jamaica, Dominican Republic, Colombia and Eastern Europe, with brands including Sensatori, Azul Beach Resorts and Sensimar. Karisma’s wedding packages “Memorable Moments” are a great selling point as they allow guests to choose the theme of their big day and add extras while giving agents the opportunity to increase their earnings further still.

What’s new? Plans to build a Karisma resort village in Jamaica are afoot. The group has acquired a plot of land in Llandovery, St Ann near Ocho Rios, where it will build 10 new hotels, including Karisma, Sensimar, Sensatori and Azul Fives by 2020. Each property will have its own restaurant but there will also be a Karisma Gourmet Village with additional dining options as well as casinos, a shopping centre, waterparks and a golf course.

Kanika Hotels & Resorts

Cyprus specialist Kanika has five properties on the island. It describes its two Olympic Lagoon properties, in Ayia Napa and Paphos, as luxury all-inclusive and both have adult-only sections. UK sales representative Darren Eade says the Elias Beach is a great alternative for those whose budget doesn’t stretch to the Olympic Lagoon resorts with weddings taking place on a pier, 80 metres out to sea.

What’s new? Olympic Lagoon Ayia Napa will close for refurbishment during winter 2017/18 reopening for summer 2018 as a five-star property. The group also has a new five-star Paphos property, which it plans to sell on a half-board premium basis from 2019. 

Kanika is also keen to push winter weddings with lots more airlift going into Cyprus for the winter months and the weather still generally warm.

Eade says: “Flights are cheaper [than in summer] and as we don’t charge for venue hire, hotel rates are lower and it’s easier to get the availability.”

Elite Island Resorts
With a range of resorts in the Caribbean, Elite Island Resorts has properties to suit different client requirements and a strong focus on weddings. For wedding bookings it will leave a gift from you in your clients’ room and send you a thank you for the booking. All the hotels in the group offer complimentary wedding packages as well as vow renewal and honeymoon packages.

What’s new? Senior account executive Hayley Greenhaigh says St James’s Club Morgan Bay in St Lucia is Elite’s most popular hotel for weddings. It has a new gym and spa, new catamarans and new exclusive jeep safaris.

Barcelo Hotel Group
Four brands – Allegro, Occidental, Barcelo and Royal Hideaway – based in the Caribbean, Europe and North Africa offer something for a wide range of budgets and requirements. All Caribbean properties are sold on an all inclusive basis and sales manager UK & Ireland Debbie Walker says its properties in Mexico’s Riviera Maya are particularly well “geared up for weddings” with a different range of options to cater for the bride and groom and their guests. The group offers a variety of wedding packages to appeal to different tastes and budgets.

What’s new? Walker highlights that renovations are now complete at Barcelo Bavaro Beach Resort in Punta Cana with a new “ultra-modern” look plus same-sex weddings will be possible at Occidental Aruba following changes in the law on the island.

Operators

Cyplon Holidays

Operator Cyplon covers Cyprus, Greece, Croatia, Malta, Morocco, Israel, Egypt and Jordan. It offers regional departures and private transfers as well as reps in resort and does 90% of its business with the trade. “If a client did book direct, then we would send the travel agent the commission,” says head of national sales Stephanie Robins. She adds that the operator will be “price matching against lots of the big boys”.

What’s new? “Multi-centres such as Greece or Croatia island-hopping trips have become our top-selling product,” says Robins. She adds that the operator has been “inundated with enquiries for Santorini” and having been selling Croatia for 18 months it exceeded its target very quickly.

Robins says Malta is also selling well and it has already done around 15 weddings in the destination.

If Only
Offering holidays across Asia Pacific, the Middle East and the Indian Ocean, If Only does 97.5% of its business via agents. Dom Carrick, head of partnerships, is also quick to point out it has no direct-sell sister company. The operator has a beautifully designed wedding pack, which includes a ticket wallet with luggage labels and travel documents for every wedding booking.

What’s new? Its biggest seller was Dubai, but Mauritius has now overtaken it owing to the price war in the emirate. Carrick adds that Thailand was the operator’s biggest growth market last year when it was up by 67%. If Only is also working on a bookable website for this year that will have downloadable wedding and honeymoon offers.

Citalia
Italy specialist Citalia employs a high proportion of Italian staff who are all passionate about their country. It can access every region of Italy and has more than 300 hotels, ranging from three to five stars. Hotels are often family owned, so the operator has developed a great relationship with them over the years. The brand also has its own dedicated weddings department.

What’s new? Having split from Tui, Citalia made its own rules, the first of which was price parity. It also changed its brochure from the old hotel directory style to include detail on what customers can do in destination.

The operator can also prebook tickets to events, opera or for train journeys, plus its packages are now on sale with easyJet and Ryanair. It can also offer Eurostar with a stop in Paris.

The new Citalia Secrets portal allows agents and booked clients access to a dedicated concierge, recommendations of what to do and information about local cuisine.

Destinations

The Islands of The Bahamas
“Weddings and honeymoons are our number one sell,” says sales manager Maria Grazia Marino. There is a direct British Airways flight four times a week from London and easy connections via the USA or Cuba, which makes for a good twin-centre trip.

Marino highlights the ease of hopping between the main 16 islands with plenty of regional carriers. Nassau is home to big-name resorts such as Sandals, Atlantis Paradise Island and One&Only. Beyond Nassau there are just two mainstream properties, Sandals Exhuma and Club Med San Salvador.

What’s new? The Warwick Paradise Island resort is now open and can host weddings on the pier. Grand Bahama island is planning a stunt for Valentine’s Day this year, when it will attempt a Guinness World Record with 50 couples tying the knot underwater.

Cook Islands
Made up of 15 islands in the heart of the South Pacific, the Cook Islands are split into north and south island groups. Visitors fly into Rarotonga.

Sales manager Kay Jackson says key selling points include activities such as diving, kite surfing and jungle trekking as well as the idyllic backdrops of pristine beaches and crystal-clear water. She adds that it is a more affordable option than Tahiti.

What’s new? Jackson says most wedding or honeymoon clients fly in via Los Angeles with Air New Zealand and it is now possible to fly business class from London to Rarotonga.