TVZ.L Regulatory News (TVZ)

14 Aug 2006 07:00

Travelzest plc14 August 2006 Date: 14 August 2006On behalf of: Travelzest plc ("Travelzest" or the "Company")Embargoed until: 0700hrs Travelzest plc • Launches new venture, Faraway Holidays Travelzest plc, the British online travel group offering specialist travelprogrammes, today announces the launch of Faraway Holidays, offering tailor-madeholidays to many of the world's top exotic destinations in the Far East, MiddleEast, Indian Ocean, South Pacific and South America. Travelzest is building a portfolio of online high quality, niche travelcompanies and Faraway Holidays addresses the demand for specialist, tailoredholidays to long-haul locations. Every destination offered by Faraway Holidayswill have been visited by at least one member of the sales team, ensuring thatcustomers receive informed and knowledgeable advice when planning their holiday. In addition, Faraway Holidays will offer a selection of pre-planned holidaypackages at competitive prices, including scheduled flights with leadingairlines, private transfers and breakfast. The holidays will be promoted via anew website www.farawayholidays.co.uk which will be fully launched later thisyear. A highly-experienced and well-travelled sales team has been assembled, whichwill be led by David Oak. David has over 40 years experience in the travelindustry, working within small and large organisations, including Swan Tours, P&O and TUI UK. He ran his own company for 20 years, Air Ticket Centres and AirTravel Centres, specialising in air travel and long-haul holidays. He sold thisto TUI UK in August 1999, where he remained to set up THG Holidays, offeringholidays to the Far East and other exotic destinations. David will be joined, alongside an experienced sales and reservations team, bytwo well established travel professionals Gavin Oak and Paul Evans. The highlyskilled team is practised in devising tailor-made holidays and have an extensiveknowledge of the Far East having travelled to most countries and resorts overmany years. Faraway Holidays was established in June of this year and has already commencedtrading, promoting its holidays online and via Teletext. The project has andwill continue to be internally funded and is likely to be profitable within itsfirst full financial year. Commenting on the new venture, Chris Mottershead, Travelzest's Chief Executive,said: "We are excited about launching the first new online tour operator in theTravelzest portfolio. To date Travelzest has acquired existing businesses,however, our strategy is about addressing demand for specialist holidays and wewill explore all opportunities that add specific niches to our offering. "David and his team have been working in the travel industry for many years andhave extensive knowledge and experience of these exotic destinations. It can beparticularly hard to gather information on distant places and Faraway Holidayswill cater for travellers who value specialist advice on the facilities andactivities available to help plan their ideal holiday." Contact Faraway Holidays on 0870 270 1421 or visit the website atwww.farawayholidays.co.uk. Enquiries: Christopher Mottershead 020 7747 7231Travelzest plc Emma Kane / Samantha Robbins / Duncan McCormickRedleaf Communications Limited 020 7955 1410 Background information on Travelzest Travelzest is a travel group with high quality brands offering specialistholiday programmes and services. Chris Mottershead, 47, the Group Chief Executive who joined Travelzest in April2005, has extensive experience in the travel industry and in working for bothlarge and small organisations. He was managing director of TUI UK between 2001and 2004 with responsibility for Thomson Holidays, Lunn Poly, Travelhouse andother travel businesses based in the UK. During that time, he steered thecompany through one of the most difficult periods for travel and still achievedrecord profits. Prior to this, he was President and CEO, North American LeisureGroup, Airtours plc, which he joined in 1993 and where his roles includedmanaging director and finance director. He joined Airtours from Aspro Travel &Inter European Airways where he was Group Finance Director. The Group currently comprises: VFB Holidays is a long established, award winning tour operator, which providedholidays for approximately 24,000 passengers in its last financial year. VFB iscurrently contracted with the owners of approximately 350 holiday cottagesthroughout France for the summer season, and has booking arrangements with over150 hotels, most of which are privately owned and are located in rural orsemi-rural locations. VFB specialises in cottage holidays in France, but alsohas a number of other holiday programmes including: France a la Carte (hotelaccommodation), Corsica, Short Breaks, Escorted Tours and River Cruises. Holiday Express is one of the UK's leading on-line travel agents. It is atravel agent specialising in on-line travel fulfilment services and onlinetravel sales. Holiday Express' retail business (acting as travel agent),providing package holidays, charter flights and ski booking services, accountsfor the vast majority of its revenue and the remainder of its revenue isgenerated through acting as a tour operator. Holiday Express owns a number oftravel website domain names, including:- www.holiday.co.uk- www.flight.co.uk- www.discountholidays.com Best of Morocco is a tour operator specialising in high quality, tailor-madeholidays to Morocco for individuals or small groups. It provides apersonalised service and its highly experienced and knowledgeable staff helpeach customer select the hotels / resorts from their large range which areappropriate for the customer's desired style of holiday. Best of Morocco is thepremier agent for the Marathon des Sables, a foot race that takes place inMorocco in April each year, covering some 230km. Best of Morocco provides thelargest contingent of runners for the race each year. Peng Travel was formed in 1971 to arrange naturist holidays for the UK market.Since then, it has grown to become Britain's biggest naturist tour operator. Ithas unrivalled experience of naturist areas worldwide and has selected only thebest. The range of naturist holidays offered is unmatched by any other Britishtour operator. Fair's Fare was established in 1995 and is the UK's leading firm of airfareanalysts, offering a unique travel planning service to both private and businessclients. The company seeks out the very best financial options, on all majorairlines, but primarily for long-haul travellers in the first and business classcabins of the world's leading airlines. This information is provided by RNS The company news service from the London Stock Exchange