One of life’s greatest pleasures – planning a holiday – is back on the agenda.
After a trying couple of years, we are beyond delighted to see a distinct return to confidence, with more flights coming back into play every day – the A380 coming out of mothballs – and clients already booking in overseas Christmas holidays – and travelling for travel’s sake.
One of the more interesting trends we’re seeing is ‘reunion trips’ – to destinations either midway between Australia and the rest of the world, or some other favourite haven for family and friends.
Making it easier for those with a backlog of points, Qantas has announced that Frequent Flyers will get more bang for their buck, now needing 30-45 per cent fewer points when booking hotels and holidays.
Also helping make travel easier again, Singapore Airlines and Qatar Airways have introduced Vaccinated Travel Lanes so eligible vaccinated Australian travellers can enjoy quarantine-free entry to Singapore.
It’s not just the skies that are buzzing again, but international cruising is back. As Australia prepares itself to hit the high seas, the luxury liners overseas – are once again on tour and are in huge demand. In the last couple of months cruise bookings have soared, partly due to passengers holding credits or simply pent-up demand.
While for some, it may be controversial, there’s no doubting cruising is popular, and with strict protocols in place, superior medical facilities, higher staff to guest ratios and more boutique-sized excursions, berths for trips such as our cruise to Japan in May have been quickly snapped up.
Other luxury deals available include Seabourn Cruises offering verandah suite upgrades, Captain Cook Cruises with 30 per cent off their Fiji tour and a Silversea cruise departing Singapore in November to discover Malaysia, Thailand and Vietnam.