NEW MODEL, NO RISK

Sunquest Vacations is reinventing itself, unveiling a new logo along with a completely new approach to doing business by now offering packaged vacations with substantially more choice and greater flexibility. Following the successful launch of FunSun Vacations packages earlier this year, Sunquest will transition to the same business model, taking over the sun program, while FunSun will continue to offer packages to the US, a market, officials say, that has been traditionally under-represented by Canadian tour operators. Moving forward, Sunquest will focus on the destinations it is synonymous with, namely the Caribbean and Mexico, and FunSun will continue to offer its extensive programs in Hawaii and Florida, as well as packages to places like New Orleans, Phoenix and San Francisco, and all-inclusive city breaks in New York City and Las Vegas, among others. “The new business model for our Mainstream division was initially launched under FSV only to avoid potential confusion with the traditional risk model that was being operated by Sunquest for winter 12/13,”said Dean Moore, CEO, Thomas Cook North America, parent company to both Sunquest and FSV. “We started by rolling it out to our in-house retail team, followed by a subset of B2B and B2C channels, which has, along with valuable input from over 3,000 agents, allowed us to identify and address any issues, and more importantly refine the product offering and overall shopping experience.””Last week the product was opened up across all channels, making it the perfect time to launch these packages under Sunquest. Given the universally positive feedback we’ve already received from our retail partners, and the volume of business generated during the soft launch, we are extremely confident as we move forward with this full market launch.”Officials say Sunquest, like FSV, will now stand apart from its competitors in four key ways: !!! More gateways and destinations: Offering departures from 19 gateways across Canada (with more being added on a regular basis), along with the ability to connect from smaller airports, Sunquest can now take customers to all the perennial favourites in Mexico and the Caribbean, including offering expanded programs in Cuba and the Dominican Republic and packages in such places as Turks & Caicos, Bermuda and Barbados; !!! A choice of many different durations: These new Sunquest packages offer almost any duration – from as little as one-night to long weekend escapes, the standard seven or 14 nights to multiple weeks. So long as there is a flight available, customers can book it; !!! Flights on a choice of scheduled carriers: This includes long-time partner WestJet, as well as Air Canada and a variety of US carriers, with the initial search displaying the cheapest, most direct flight, however a choice of up to 16 alternatives is also available, offering the ability to customize the package by carrier and/or flight time. Customers can also choose to fly via the US to take advantage of even better pricing.