Traveleads E News Bulletin, Issue 8

Welcome to the Traveleads February Newsletter and a Happy 40th Anniversary to Traveleads. This month we have all the latest news, offers and the chance to win two great prizes. For further details on any of the items featured please contact your friendly Traveleads teams on 0113 2457745 or 0131 7184000.

Traveleads Celebrates 40 Years

From humble beginnings in a tiny office on New Station Street, Traveleads has become a highly successful company, now boasting an annual turnover of �27million and employing 70 people.

In 1989 Traveleads and a smaller rival company, Aire Travel, were merged following the acquisition of Traveleads by the Evans of Leeds group, and the company moved to its current location of New York House.

Diversifying into sport and media in the 80's and 90's has dramatically widened the scope of the work undertaken by the company, and Traveleads is now the UK's leading supplier of travel services to sports organisations around the company. We've just taken the England cricket team to Australia; are taking care of all of the RBS 6 Nations travel for the Scottish Rugby Union, as well as flying all of our leading tennis players to their tournaments around the world!

We also provider services to many organisations in the arts and broadcast media sectors, including BBC Sport, with many household name organisations relying on our skills.

Our growth led to a second office based in Edinburgh which opened in 2002 with 3 staff, and now boasts a team of 12 with a multi-million pound turnover built from scratch. The success of the Edinburgh team is attributed to their know-how, combined with fantastic client service skills - in the true Traveleads tradition.

Traveleads has a proven record of client retention with many customers trading with us in excess of 15 years. When asked to sum up the secret of our success, Elaine Holmes, our Joint Managing Director said "It's simply that we are not just a travel agency - we are a provider of great service as well. Everyone in the team takes pride in attention to detail and customer care care and this generates strong client loyalty. Our clients are our lifeblood and as such we work hard to ensure they come back to us again and again!"

Lufthansa Lounges: Enjoy your personal space

Lufthansa has 65 exclusive lounges worldwide and more than 800 lounges belonging to Star Alliance and cooperation partners. Lufthansa's lounges boast comfort areas which include showers and business areas with work space and free Internet access and a bistro and bar area serving delicious food and drinks. Lufthansa is investing around �150 million before 2013 in building new lounges and refurbishing existing ones.

The unique Welcome Lounge offers arriving passengers the opportunity to freshen up with a shower after a long-haul flight or to start their day off well with a hearty breakfast. Facilities include bathroom area with 28 showers, ironing service, bistro area with substantial breakfast buffet, media area with flat-screen TVs, quiet room with Relax chairs, separate smoking room, work area with PCs and Internet access. The First Class Terminal at Frankfurt has space for you to relax and feel at home with comforts including gourmet restaurant, personal assistants, daybeds and bathroom, plus limousine transfer to your flight.

For your chance to win a bottle of delicious German wine courtesy of Lufthansa just answer this simple question: How many exclusive Lufthansa lounges are there worldwide? Please send your answer to [email protected] along with your name and a contact telephone number. The closing date is the 1st March, and the winner will be notified and announced in the next Newsletter. Good luck and don't forget to look out for next month's competition.

Etihad lounge brings business to Manchester

Etihad Airways has launched its new premium lounge in Manchester Airport's Terminal 1, as the next stage of the airline's on-going investment in the region. Following the success of lounges in Abu Dhabi, London, and Frankfurt, the Manchester Lounge will reflect Etihad's award-winning style and service concept, with a high quality look and feel throughout.

The 318 square metre lounge will bolster business services, offering the airline's Pearl Business passengers a range of features, including five-star dining facilities with a selection of international cuisine, a modern business centre providing individual workstations and privacy for people with laptops.

Passengers can also appreciate a prayer room, a family room, relaxation area, including high-comfort leather chairs and reading material, luxurious bathrooms and shower facilities for customers to freshen up before their departure and expansive views over the airport's taxiway and runway. Business Class passengers can also enjoy free limousine transfers to and from the airport so passengers can relax in Etihad's signature style from door-to-door.

Commencing from the 1st August 2011 and with tickets on sale now, the Manchester to Abu Dhabi service will increase from a daily service to ten flights per week. This not only means more services to Abu Dhabi but also opens more of Etihad's long haul network, to Asia, Australia and Africa to guests from the North West.

This latest development is testament to Etihad's commitment to the North West of England, and to the ever-growing demand for business and leisure travel out of the region.

Understated Elegance at Millennium Gloucester Hotel London Kensington

Millennium Gloucester Hotel London Kensington is a cosmopolitan 4 star deluxe hotel offering an understated elegance with a relaxed environment and friendly but discreet level of service. Located in the heart of the prestigious Kensington town, less than a minute's walk from the Gloucester Road Underground Station, Millennium Gloucester Hotel London Kensington is close to many of London's major attractions such as Kensington Palace and Gardens, The Royal Albert Hall and The Natural History Museum as well as the most exclusive shopping districts.

Millennium Gloucester Hotel London Kensington is a popular business hotel boasting extensive meeting and event space in the Millennium Conference Centre which has recently been re-designed and upgraded. It also has a business centre comprising of complete state-of-the-art facilities including high speed internet access, fax service and secretarial services.

The hotel caters for many tastes with a selection of fine dining restaurants and bars offering creative cuisine. Olives Restaurant & Bar is a great place to meet and eat stylish and authentic Italian cuisine. The hugely popular Bugis Street Brasserie serves modern Cantonese Singaporean dishes from the Far East. You can relax in Humphrey's Cafe & Bar with delicious coffees and light meals. South West 7 serves a sumptuous buffet breakfast which appeals to all tastes buds. And the world-renowned Bombay Brasserie is one of London's premier Indian restaurants. With such a diverse mix there is something for everyone to enjoy.

With great deals such as 15% off when booking in advance and a saving of 20% when staying 3 nights or more, Millennium Gloucester Hotel London Kensington offers excellent value. For more details or to book please contact your Traveleads teams on 0113 2457745 or 0131 7184000.

For your chance to win an overnight stay for 2 including breakfast just answer this simple question. Which underground station is less than a minute's walk from the Millennium Gloucester Hotel London Kensington? Please send your answer to [email protected] along with your name and a contact telephone number. The closing date is the 1st March, and the winner will be notified and announced in the next Newsletter. Good Luck!

Traveleads Leisure Division shifts focus to luxury brands and bespoke travel services.....

Over the last couple of years of recession we have seen significant shifts in the leisure travel market, with the majority of families and more budget-conscious travellers spending large amounts of time trawling the Internet to secure the lowest possible pricing for their planned travel. At the same time, many of the package holiday tour operators have been heavily discounting online for direct sales and via associated high-street chains of travel agencies.

Conversely, the recession seems to have had the effect of creating greater demand at the luxury end of the scale for "just right" holidays - with people planning to invest in luxury leisure travel wanting to ensure that the money they spend is, put simply, well spent. We've seen real boosts in the sales of some of the top-end tour operators we represent and have also seen good growth in the demand for individual, bespoke luxury travel planning, where the focus is on getting things absolutely right.

Being an independent agent, we sadly can't compete on equal terms in the mass market with our high-street counterparts and the wholesale tour operators who benefit from large volume discounts, so we've decided to very much work to our strengths and encourage clients to visit or call us when they want:

• luxury holidays & cruises from the most respected tour operating companies
• tailor-made holidays and travel plans - in the UK, Europe and worldwide
• flight-only to worldwide destinations (did you know that Traveleads has direct discounted deals with over 40 airlines, including many in Business and First class?)
• speciality holidays such as safaris, whale-watching, great rail journeys, ski-ing, spa and relaxation breaks, luxury city breaks
• aircraft and yacht charter, or exclusive use of castles, islands, ski-chalets and the greatest hotel suites in the world
• weddings and honeymoons to remember for a lifetime

Our Leisure Division Manager, Vicky Harrison, is on maternity leave at present, but her team - Paula, Sue, Nikki and Jason are all experienced travellers and waiting to help you with your personal travel needs. Rather than featuring leisure offers and information in the business travel newsletters, the Leisure Team will be launching their own regular newsletter this month, which will include:

• special focus on worldwide holiday destinations
• news on new developments in the luxury hotel world
• special deals offered by our partner operators
• great ideas and suggestions for your future holidays and breaks
• spotlights on out of the way places and experiences

We very much hope that you will enjoy coming with us on this new journey. Traveleads is celebrating 40 years of serving the discerning traveller, and the world continues to open up and offer more and more exciting possibilities to those seeking something "a cut above the ordinary".

The Traveleads Leisure team can be contacted on 0113 245 2022 or by email [email protected].

Congratulations to the lucky winners of last months competition, Terry Spicer has won a bottle of wine courtesy of Lufthansa and James Shaw has won an overnight stay for 2 with dinner and breakfast at The Westerwood Hotel & Golf Resort Glasgow. If you weren't lucky this time remember to enter this month's competitions and look out for more exciting competitions in the coming month's and keep your fingers crossed!