Disaster - Thomson/Crystal have discontinued Serbia for 2008/09
We have visited Kop for the last two years in February and had a great time. Booked late March this year, to go for a third time in February 2009.
Imagine our disappointment yesterday evening to receive an email from Thomson informing us that our holiday has been cancelled due to Serbia being discontinued for 2008/09. No other reason given, and offering us two alternative holidays in either Slovenia or Bulgaria with a week to decide on what to do.
Gave them a call today, the chap I spoke to couldn't give me any more info on why Serbia had been dropped other than 'maybe it wasn't profitable enough....' He had actually been there himself in March 07.
Anyway, has anyone else got any further info on why they're not going there any more? Won't consider Balkan holidays as they have the awful 5.5 - 6 hour coach transfer from Belgrade - the 2.5 to 3 hours from Nis is bad enough! We did hear earlier this year that the state were selling off a lot of hotels and public companies, the Grand Hotel being one of them, I wonder if it is now privately owned, has shut down for a period for refurbishment, and the prices which they're wanting to charge Thomson/Crystal for the ski season are too high to make it attractive compared to the more traditional European ski resorts?
Can't decide what we're going to do yet as we head off in the morning for 2 weeks camping in France, so have asked Thomson to put the alternatives on hold for us to consider when we're back. The only problem now is going to be lack of availability for Feb half term if we want to go to another destination or hotel, as most people will have booked by now for next year....
Bah humbug....:sm008:
Reasons for Serbia being discontinued
Hello all, apologies for delay in posting, have just returned from 2 weeks camping in South-West France.
I pressed Thomson to give me a reason for Serbia being cancelled, this is what they told me by email;
'Please see comments below from our Product Manager for Serbia:
“I had a good time out there too & I'm disappointed about dropping it as well.
The answer is because of "Commercial reasons".
Unfortunately, there just hasn't been the support. There hasn't been enough of a demand from the British public to fill our planes.
FYI - over the past two or three seasons we've tried, but made significant losses which can't be sustained.
The Serbian programme may come back in the future, depending on a number of things - Fuel prices, rates/ownership of the hotels, possibility of EU accession etc.”
So there you go .....
We've been offered the Hotel Rila in Borovets Bulgaria as an alternative to transfer our holiday to, so we've decided to give it a go. Here's hoping that Serbia will return to the brochures at some time in the future! (BTW you can still go to Kop with Balkan Holidays I believe, flying to Belgrade, only trouble is it's a 5.5 - 6 hour coach transfer to the resort!
Helen
