Sunwing Travel Group: Mihaela Henes, Brand Manager; Andrew Dawson, President, Tour Operations;
Deana Murphy, Director of Dales & Anna Tarkowski, Director of Marketing
A gentle air of industry camaraderie wafted over the chilled tomato soup and parmesan shavings. This is the stuff of travel. Good food, good company, good wine. I could have listened to Andrew Dawson, President of Tour Operations at the Sunwing Travel Group, wax poetic on the subjects of “new capacity” “EBB” and “dayliner” for hours. Travel press types are so easily plied.
The message for this coming winter is that Signature has been brought back to profitability and Sunwing will continue to gather momentum. The Sunwing fleet has grown to 23 aircraft from 19 last winter, and 13 in 2009. There’s also a new “Dayliner” service from Montreal and Toronto with 10:00 am departures to Cancun and Punta Cana.
With the launch of North Bay service to Varadero, Sunwing now boasts 30 gateways from Canada to 38 destinations. Ottawa, in particular, having sold out last winter, is seeing additional capacity to Costa Rica and Los Cabos. Torontonians will have new beach choices with flights to Aruba, Nassau and St. Maarten.
Signature will continue to focus up market with special attention on its RIU exclusivity. The resort group is apparently beginning to adopt a newer, contemporary look starting with the launch this December of the new RIU Palace Bavaro in a cream and purple palette.
Sunwing is also focusing heavily on the profitable weddings market, having taken a majority stake in “Luxe Weddings” allowing the operator to offer wedding consultation in addition to the travel arrangements.
Clearly, the orange machine is in full swing for a strong showing this winter.
