Netball World Championship Singapore 2011

The 2011 Netball World Championships in Singapore is one of the current crop of events Sportsnet Holidays is most excited about. The Singapore Tourist Authority have been great and are right behind the comp and getting international fans to the event. We have been in touch with a lot of the National Netball Comps and there is a real buzz building. Sportsnet Holidays have our first bite of the cherry out there as of this week. We have released 4 night Singapore Netball packages with flights and with out flights as well as the full 9 night Netball World Championship packages again with and without flights. Not sure if it will turn out to be group bookings from clubs friendship groups or individuals, we will have to wait and see. I think netball, bit of shopping, nice hotel & maybe a few nights on one of the islands close by like Tioman sounds good. Well its great that the teams have the Netball World Champs packages out their for 2011(did I really say 2011, yikes).

AFL Travel 2010

AFL season 2010 is two weeks in & we have our Offical AFL Grand Final Onseller codes. Thinking about the highlights for me as a sports traveller this year I think they will be the traditional AFL ANZAC Day clash which has competition this year from the Melbourne based NRL Game carrying the same name. The AFL MVP which is run by the AFL Players Association and is getting bigger every year with whole, “player celebrity focus &WAGS phenomena” & of course the AFL Grand Final which I can’t believe has been on sale before the AFL Premiership has even fired up. What is really adding a new dimension this year to the AFL home and away series is that the Dogs & Saints will up there but the interstate clubs with all the player & manager changes could be any where. Anyway we have put a lot of work in to season 2010 at Sportsnet Holidays and the AFL Travel Packages are out there and most importantly the boss is not winning the office footy tipping comp (which in any case would be unAustralian, please note: bosses & poms dont win office footy comps)

Socceroos fans & World Cup Price Hikes

With less than a 100 days to go this Article online in Melbourne's Herald Sun really stung. heraldsun.com.au Aussies Stung by Football World Cup Price Hikes here is the link.

http://www.heraldsun.com.au/travel/news/aussies-stung-by-football-world-cup-price-hikes/story-fn32891l-1225843664435

I can understand the anger so I wrote the response below.It's a tough call to choose what to market to soccer fans & South Africa can be a tricky destination for many operators. So I tried to be nice but in essence we thought camping in Autumn was a youth product and what about rain, security & showers etc. A weekend at Meridith or the Falls Festival with a bit of rain is enough and you are only a days drive max from a shower, a sleep & a big feed at home. The other issue was Jo'burgs reputation was too scary for us even though it seemed like a cool place Aussies South Africans said otherwise. Anyway this is how it went.

A Travel Company Perspective: At SportsnetHolidays.com we are also an official participating tour operator for the 2010 FIFA World Cup South Africa selling tours with Tickets & Hotel Packages. We have sold out one tour & are doing well in a second tour. We took 2 years to plan our World Cup packages & after visiting South Africa in Autumn chose against camping. We also believe Australians who have gone all the way to Africa should see Vic Falls, go to Kruger & Climb Table mountain. We figured it was better to pay & organise this before you left, but this made our offer more expensive. All our packages are hotel only as a week in tents if it rains with no place to leave your passport, tickets, ipods etc can be along time. Sportsnet focused on offering a range of African tours for fans that have gone all the way to South Africa & to back that up by offering a Cape Town Accommodation only option for fans that have their own tickets.

Townsville V8's, Townsville V8 Supercars update

V8 Supercars has kicked off this weekend in Adelaide. We had a great Q&A session at the Sportsnet Holidays V8 drivers function & I have put up a link to it on youtube. I also got some not so good feedback saying we need to rework our Clipsal 500 offering as it had been the same for 2 years, hard to hear but much appreciated.

This is a great read especially for the SMH which doesn't have a great rep in V8 Supercars reporting, it is 5 V8 drivers to watch in 2010.

The event that seems to have everyone in the office pumped this year is the Townsville 400. The Townsville V8 accommodation is also a city street circuit. I am not sure why that makes in more captivating.

This year we have got more Townsville V8 Supercars tickets and a greater choice of Townsville V8 accommodation on the site. For those of you who don't know the Townsville V8 Supercars date it is 9-11 July and you wont get a better dose of winter sunshine than in Townsville.

Melbourne F1 News Australian Grand Prix

Finally saw some advertising and promo around town for the Australian Grand Prix. The Melbourne F1 race has been our number one traffic driver for months now and I was really concerned that there didn't seem to be a vibe out there. Powder Finger are the main entertainment act ( I will be at that one).
Bookings have been a bit slow since Christmas so we put a new short stay Australian Grand Prix Travel package in the market which is only 2 nights. We have never had short stays before with the Australian Grand Prix, it has always been 3 to 5 nights. Hope things will really kick on now the promotion has started. At Sportsnet Holidays we love the Aussie Grand Prix like the Australian Open its first of the season and always throws up a surprise or two.

Socceroos World Cup South Africa

Every time there is another Socceroos game the World Cup buzz lingers for days. Two good bits to look at on BBC Africa. The first one is the African experience of trying to by world cup tickets. It took Sportsnet Holidays over a year to get World Cup tickets & World Cup Tour accreditation and corporate hospitality rights and we had a heap of experience in Africa. The process was tough but fair. You have to feel for those guys, even if we moan it makes you feel lucky we have such good systems in Australia. The other good one is a Soccer Fans Guide to Cape Town a great city which will be packed with Socceroos fans. Looking forward to the Socceroos vs the Kiwis at the G. Remember the last World Cup send off match, for those of not going it should be a great atmosphere.

Ashes Tour Packages & Ashes Tickets

Ashes Tour for 3 mobile Ashes Test Series 2010-11.

Ashes Tour Packages are the hottest Sports Tour packages of 2010 -2011. The five match Ashes Tour in Australia is due on general release by about the 05th March 2010. Sportsnet Holidays Ashes Tour packages will have Ashes tickets & hotels from 3 to 5 star in every major city & we are looking at a lead in price from about $600 per person for a 3 star hotel for 3 nights and two solid days of Ashes Cricket. With our extensive experience in AFL Footy, NRL & V8s we have great hotel deals in every city which we have locked in. However getting access to the Ashes Tickets to the Australian tests is always a huge challenge & we have wait until general the release of the tickets. In the mean time if you want more than just a ticket stay tuned & here are the dates for the Australian Ashes Series below. If the Long Form of our game is not your bag we have the Twenty20 World Cup and the Pakistan vs Australia games in London to satifiy your desire for some crash & bash action.

Ashes Test Dates are out.

The Gabba Ashes Test Nov. 25-29
Adelaide Ashes Test Dec. 3-7
Perth Ashes Test Dec. 16-20.
Melbourne Ashes Test (Boxing Day Test) Dec. 26-30
Sydney Ashes Test Jan. 3-7.