Chic Outlet Shopping, Value Retail’s collection of nine luxury outlet villages in Europe, has just announced a partnership with Hotelbeds, the world’s leading hotel bed wholesaler.
Under this agreement, Hotelbeds will market Chic Outlet Shopping’s tourist packages and tickets for Shopping Express, its luxury shuttle service, through its brand "Activities," geared to marketing transfers, activities and experiences for the tourism industry as a whole.
In addition to more than 900 boutiques of world-famous luxury fashion and home decoration brands featuring in the collection of Chic Outlet Shopping’s nine luxury outlet villages, a number of top quality hospitality services will also be available to visitors. One of Chic Outlet Shopping’s luxury products is Shopping Express, a comfortable and affordable deluxe shuttle service from the city centre to its villages.
Chic Outlet Shopping’s ever-growing choice of tourist packages combines a luxury shopping experience at its villages with cultural and leisure attractions. Each one of the nine villages offers clients bespoke tourist packages, including Shopping Express tickets, lunch, a gift card to spend at the villages, and a VIP card offering holders a 10% discount at participating boutiques and restaurants.
The villages also offer a range of bespoke tourist packages combining shopping with cultural, wellness and sports activities. Located close to Barcelona, La Roca Village’s "Shopping & Sagrada Familia" package, which includes a guided tour of Gaudi’s house in Passeig de Gràcia and the Sagrada Familia, starts at Plaça Catalunya in the morning and lasts about two and half hours. In the afternoon, Shopping Express, the luxury shuttle service with a bilingual hostess onboard, picks up customers in Central Barcelona. Clients also receive a VIP card on arrival at the village offering them a 10% discount at participating boutiques.
There are currently over 30 tourist packages to choose from, which can be booked through the nine villages, in addition to several more planned for 2014. For a full list of tourist packages, consult: ChicOutletShopping.com/shoppingpackages.
For Carlos Muñoz, CEO of Hotelbeds, the agreement offers the company’s clients amazing shopping experiences: "Our partnership with Chic Outlet Shopping is strategically important for Hotelbeds and its ’Activities’ brand. We’ll be able to offer our clients over 30 different high-quality products, based on new shopping experiences, in nine destinations. Our technological platform will allow direct access to tourist packages and Shopping Express tickets, thus offering end clients new, unique and exclusive products. "
In the words of Ian Stazicker, tourism director of global marketing at Value Retail, the agreement with Hotelbeds will allow clients to access Chic Outlet Shopping’s services via a greater number of platforms. "Our villages are currently known as tourism destinations in their own right, with tax-free sales increasing by 44% from January-October 2013, with respect to the same period in 2012. International tourists visit our villages from all over the world, our main tax-free sales markets being China, followed by Russia, Kuwait and Malaysia. The agreement with Hotelbeds is yet another demonstration of our commitment to the travel industry and tourism as a whole so as to develop mutually beneficial activities that make our services available to a greater number of clients."
Hotelbeds’ portfolio currently features 60,000 hotels in 180 countries. The products will be offered to the world’s chief travel agencies and tour operators, as well as corporate clients from different sectors, via Hotelbeds main channels
Hotelbeds’ top 10 destinations are Spain, USA, Italy, Turkey, Mexico, Portugal, the United Kingdom, France, Thailand and Greece.
"Activities" is Hotelbeds’ new brand for its transfer and activities bank business. The company is currently the leading distributor of these services, offering over 8,000 transfers and 12,000 activity options in 110 countries.
