AROUND THE WORLD IN 60 YEARS !
AROUND THE WORLD IN 60 YEARS !
by Ann Anglesea , Delmar World
Delmar World is celebrating its 60th anniversary and this has prompted me to reflect on how holiday trends have evolved during that time .
When , in 1964 , Ces and Betty Davies - my parents - opened a small travel agency in a room above Gresford ’ s newsagents , a return trip to London was considered adventurous and British Rail and National Coach tickets were their main line of business - all hand-written , of course !
By the 1970s , people were starting to venture further afield and , having moved into rather more spacious modern offices with a growing team , Delmar developed its Mini-Cruise programme : these were fully escorted short breaks to Denmark , Sweden and the Netherlands by coach and ferry . For many clients , these affordable trips were the beginning of their overseas travel experience .
Package holidays to Europe - primarily Spain , Greece and Italy - followed allowing clients to further expand their holiday horizons : some of you may remember the glossy brochures from Clarksons , Intersun , Wings and many other long-gone operators . In those pre-internet days , as soon as a brochure was launched , there would be a mad scramble for the limited number of free child places and our sales team - including me - could spend hours on the phone trying to get through to secure some : there were no online booking systems then !
In 1979 , Freddie Laker started his Skytrain service to Miami , opening up Florida as a family holiday destination . Throughout the 80s and 90s , we escorted groups to Orlando with its myriad of attractions , including the most famous of them all : Disney World . In fact , many of the clients who took their children to this wonderland are now booking with us to take their grandchildren !
Of course , the USA has a lot more to offer than Florida - the Grand Canyon , Niagara Falls , Yosemite and Yellowstone National Parks , Las Vegas , New York , San Francisco , Nashville and New Orleans to name a few ! As the demand for USA holidays increased , we opened a dedicated offshoot called the USA TRAVEL CENTRE . This specialises in tailormade , self-drive itineraries and Howard Davies - my brother - is known as one of the UK ’ s leading USA
Specialists . His expertise and knowledge of the States - which he has visited more than 200 times ! - is invaluable in creating amazing holiday experiences for our clients .
Then , in 2001 , the world was shaken to its core by 9 / 11 . Travel to the USA stopped and , for a while , people were understandably reluctant to travel anywhere .
That was when we decided to train our team to be true travel experts in worldwide destinations . Within a couple of years , Canada , Australia , New Zealand and the Far East were becoming popular and , very soon , South Africa , South America , India and other exotic locations were added to the list of desirable holiday destinations .
Over the last few years , cruising has become extremely popular , leading to a tenfold increase in cruise ship capacity . This has created a huge range of cruise types : from small , sumptuous , all-inclusive , ultra-luxury ships to floating skyscrapers with 19 swimming pools , capable of taking 7,000 passengers on familyfriendly , affordable sailings .
But deciding which ship , which type of suite and which itinerary to choose is crucial and so , a few years ago , we launched a subsidiary company - PERFECT CRUISES . Today , our team of cruise specialists take great care in ensuring that their recommendations will meet - and even exceed - each client ’ s expectations .
As our reputation grew , we were attracting clients from further afield and so , in late 2019 , we were thrilled to find suitable premises in Heswall . After much renovation work , we were looking forward to our grand opening . Sadly , Covid then put a stop to travel for a considerable time and we had to take an extended break . But , happily , that is now behind us , the world has opened up again and we are going from strength to strength !
So , we have gone from selling London return coach and rail tickets to advising clients on destinations as diverse as African safaris and round-the-world luxury cruises : I wonder where our clients will be holidaying 60 years from now !
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