Santa business in poor elf, but increased trips to German Christmas markets, and New York

Date added: 23 November, 2010

23.11.2010 (TravelMole)

by Dinah Hatch

German Christmas markets have overtaken visits to Santa in the run up to this
Christmas season, according to the Co-operative Travel.

The group says its research shows that trips to Lapland to see the man in red
have fallen by a quarter (26%) whilst visits to German markets have gone up 25%.

Director of retail distribution at The Co-operative Travel Trevor Davis said:
“German markets are giving travel companies a boost in festive sales as people
look to kick start their Christmas shopping and soak up the atmosphere.

“It seems the popularity of these markets in the UK has encouraged a big increase
in people heading to Germany to experience the real thing.

“As well as the millions of people who will visit the markets popping up in major
cities up and down the UK, we’re seeing a 25% increase in the numbers of people
heading to Germany to sample festive treats and pick up some early presents.”

The Cooperative Travel reports that shopping trips in general in the run up to
Christmas are enjoying a surge in popularity. Retail trips to New York and Holland
have seen a rise of 8% and 21% respectively.

The figures were based on bookings of 11,953 holidays between December 3 and
17 this year.
http://www.travelmole.com/stories/1145263.php?mpnlog=1&m_id=s~T_Y!vnm

You can see how the Co-op are pushing trips, (by plane, naturally) all over the world.

They were advertising trips to markets in Belgium by coach in 2010, but they no longer do (2013) at

http://www.cooptravel.co.uk/christmas-markets-2010.aspx

The Co-op travel website, in amongst all the adverts for flights, did have a
page on Green Travel (= rail) in 2010, but no longer does (2013).

at http://www.cooptravel.co.uk/train-holidays.aspx

There only appears to be a mention of the option of travel by rail to Paris, Brussels and Disneyland (though the Co-op pushes cheap flights for all three destinations, with a mention of the option of rail.

The Co-op’s website which in 2010 was about travel by train now merely reverts to the home page, with absolutely no mention of rail visible at all. Flights only.

Bearing in mind how hard the Co-op is pushing foreign travel by plane (which tends to be one of the very highest activities in anyone’s annual carbon footprint, it is difficult to see how this squares with this claim by the Co-op on its “Our Commitment to the Environment” page:

“Over the last few years The Co-operative has taken a lead, set by its members, to champion campaigns and take action to combat climate change. We have taken bold and far-reaching steps to reduce CO2 emissions across all of our business activities. Our stores and branches are powered by renewable sources of energy and we generate our own electricity through wind farms on our own farmland. We are also reducing our power consumption by setting ourselves, and successfully meeting, extensive and challenging reduction targets.”.

For more on the same lines, apparently oblivious of the internal contradictions, see http://www.co-operative.coop/greentravel/greener-travel/the-co-operative-commitment-to-the-environment/

Santa business in poor elf, but increased trips to German Christmas markets, and New York

You can see how the Co-op are pushing trips, (by plane, naturally) all over the world.

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