Travel with Katie Butler: Please support Mission Christmas Cash for Kids Campaign

Katie Butler, Total Travel, writes: Our adventures for 2023 have almost come to an end.

Next week I will be able to tell you all about the Jet2holidays conference in Turkey.

As we are getting close to Christmas, I would like to take this opportunity, to push again our Mission Christmas Cash for Kids Campaign.

Sadly, latest figures from the End Child Poverty Coalition show that poverty has increased once again and in some of our local areas – one in three children are living in poverty.

These are children who will potentially wake up to nothing on December 25.

There will be no letters to Santa, no decorations, no gifts under the tree and no Christmas magic to believe in.

We are collecting unopened toys for children in the local area that for one reason or another will not be receiving Christmas presents this year.

Please – if you have any unopened gifts, or even have a spare few pounds to purchase a small gift to drop into us, it would be greatly appreciated.

We also appeal for gifts for teenagers, it is much easier to buy for younger children and the campaign really struggles for gifts for the teenagers.

Example gift ideas for this age group are – gift cards, scarves, socks, make-up sets, and football socks.

If you would like to help us with our mission, please drop any donations in store to either our Heckmondwike or new Ossett store on or before December 16 to give us time to deliver to the Cash for Kids warehouse.

We look forward to keeping you updated on our progress.

It was revealed last week that four bidders have joined the bidding to secure a lease for Doncaster Airport.

The mayor of Doncaster, Ros Jones, updated councillors on negotiations to reopen the regional airport and confirmed that the first stage of the procurement exercise to find an operator had closed, with four bidders being invited to the next stage.

Each will now submit more formalised bids.

Of course, it’s certainly not going to be an overnight decision and the next lot of news is expected in spring 2024, when an operator is expected to be finalised.

We have a month of learning and fun ahead of us and a busy diary.

Training courses are essential in the industry as so many things can change and new products launch.

This month alone, between our staff, we are attending over six regional training events, not to mention the online courses our team have been attending via Webinar. Knowledge is key!

Last week was a real mixed bag.

New bookings, however, remained in line with the pattern of 2023 and late bookings accounted for a huge 26 per cent of our total sales.

December bookings were once again our bestselling month, as last-minute getaways continue to thrive.

Cruises then came in second with a huge 21 per cent of our new bookings, pushed with the Black Friday deals that have landed with us.

Next week the conference update, we can’t wait!

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