Olympic lights up path ahead

Catterall is adamant the operator is not simply chasing greater volume: increasing average selling price is another critical objective.

Olympic’s Gold programme, combining upmarket hotels with extras such as airport lounge access and private transfers, has now been separated into a standalone brochure. Some agents are selling the Gold Collection that hadn’t worked with Olympic previously.

By selling more in the first part of the year, meanwhile, Olympic hopes to move away from cheap and late deals.

With the major economic crisis that hit Greece last year, and the refugee crisis and terrorist threats currently affecting the eastern Med, you might not have thought 2015 and 2016 were good years to be a Greece and Cyprus specialist.

However, Olympic Holidays was able to finish 2015 with sales a modest 6% up on target. It’s also had an encouraging start to 2016, up 4% in January compared with the same period last year.

“Terrorism is a problem for humanity, and yes it’s had an impact on some of our destinations, but other parts of our programme are more than compensating for it,” Catterall claims.

Because other source markets are also turning to Greece and Cyprus this summer, agents who expect to come to Olympic to book last-minute Greece or Cyprus may find themselves disappointed.

“Some destinations will be almost sold out by March,” he warns.

With the islands of Ithaca, Milos and Tinos newly introduced for summer 2016, Olympic now operates to 37 islands and mainland resorts in Greece – giving it the widest programme of any operator to Greece.

It’s this depth of product and level of knowledge, built over almost 50 years of operating to Greece, that makes agents trust Olympic, says Catterall.

“I thought I knew Greece well until I joined Olympic, but the level of destination expertise within the team here is incredible,”

“We’ve got 150 reps on the ground in Greece and Cyprus, and many of the team in head office have worked for the company for 20 or 30 years.”

Until Olympic relaunched its website at the end of last year, it was also selling 13 other destinations online and through agents, including the Canaries, Turkey, Croatia, Goa and Tunisia.

Only Cyprus and Greece are currently on sale through the trade, but Catterall expects to reintroduce other destinations later this year.

“We focused on consolidating our homeland in Greece first,” he explains. “And there is still scope to expand further in Greece. But you will also see us moving into new geographies, and bringing more into the tour operation. We’ve got some very exciting plans for 2017,” he reveals.

Olympic’s new focus on trade engagement and increased marketing should herald the end of it hiding its light beneath that bushel.

“The way we’ll grow the business is by letting agents know who we are and what we stand for. Agents are starting to look at us differently now, and they’ll see us being even more proactive in the future,” Catterall concludes.

So as the operator looks ahead to its 50th anniversary next year, with a programme of celebratory activity, the Olympic torch looks set to burn more brightly than ever before.