E3 Group

Reports are emerging that previous, gloomy predictions of the economic downturn’s impact on the travel trade may have been exaggerated. In the last month, tour operating giant Thomas Cook has seen bookings for European destinations skyrocket. Initially, experts had predicted a surge in holiday makers substituting foreign destinations for domestic holidays. It seems that vacationers have actually been holding off on booking overseas holidays to try and get the best deals available. Manny Fontenla-Novoa, Thomas Cook CEO, has noticed that package holidays, though falling out of favour in recent years, have had a surge in popularity with customers looking for only the most competitive deals.

It seems that, more than ever, people need an overseas holiday to escape from all the doom and gloom at home and with continental Europe and non-eurozone destination bookings gaining huge momentum, E3 Group’s entertainers are gearing up for a busy season. Initial fears of low turnouts appear to have been quashed with an unprecedented 12 per cent rise in bookings on the same period last year. Of course, trading for the tour operating giants will still be difficult in these turbulent times, but hopefully E3 Group’s exceptional new production shows will keep their current customers entertained and encourage repeat business for 2010!

Related articles by Zemanta

• Holidaymakers to pay more to be protected (telegraph.co.uk)
• Britons continue to travel despite economic gloom (telegraph.co.uk)
• Savvy Traveller: saving money on next year’s holiday (telegraph.co.uk)
• Greece 2009: accommodation options (telegraph.co.uk)

E3 Production has had an eventful time this week getting things in place for the imminent holiday season. The new Majorca office has officially opened allowing the team to take a more hands on approach to our new Hi! Hotels contract. We have just finished working with Peter Dixon to produce a voice over ident package for our Thomas Cook entertainment programme. Peter is the voice of the X Factor, Britain’s Got Talent, Family Fortunes and E4 and has added his own unique vocal styling to E3 Production’s entertainment shows. We have also just finished an exciting project with none other than the legendary DJ Pat Sharp. Pat has helped us produce a parody version of Let’s Get Loud for the new Thomas Cook club dance.

E3 Careers have been extremely busy in the past month, travelling the length and breadth of Europe to train E3 Group’s incoming entertainment staff. From Sweden to Spain, the team have been working round the clock to ensure delegates receive only the best entertainment training on offer. After Pat Sharp’s contribution to this years programme, sales of the E3 Let’s Get Loud Entertainment Team Sweatshirt have gone through the roof with over eighty percent of the training course delegates wearing this must-have fashion item. Preparations are well underway for the first E3 Group Training Course Prom night. This glamorous evening will take place next Tuesday in Palma as a Celebration of the season ahead and the end of the first Thomas Cook training course. The prom will feature live local entertainment, surprise performances from some of our consultants, an awards ceremony for the training course stars and prize giveaways for all the future E3 Entertainers. Keep up to date with all the news from E3 Production and E3 Careers by following us on Twitter.

Related articles by Zemanta

• Spain 2009: accommodation options (telegraph.co.uk)

E3 Group opened the doors to another new office on Monday 5th of March… in sunny Spain! The new Majorca base has been set-up to better facilitate our European service contracts with Thomas Cook and Hi! Hotels. David Parker, E3 Group Operations Manager, is currently heading up the new team out there and he had this to say about how things are progressing:

“Things are going extremely well here. The whole team have been extremely busy getting the Majorca Office and training course up and running, managing to find that elusive 25th hour in most days!

The entertainers from Thomas Cook had a day off yesterday; they spent it on the beach and sighting-seeing in Palma. It was a well deserved rest and have returned today fresh, rested and ready for another day of song and dance!”

The new office will improve communications with overseas entertainers and allow E3 Group to get more involved with all the fabulous work our entertainers are doing for Thomas Cook and Hi! Hotels. If you should need to contact David Parker or our team overseas don’t hesitate to drop them a line!

E3 Group Majorca Office
Palmanova Hotel
Calle Miguel de los Santos Oliver, 13
07181 Palmanova, Calvia
Majorca,
Spain

enquiries@e3grouponline.com
recruitment@e3grouponline.com

Related articles by Zemanta

• Spain 2009: accommodation options (telegraph.co.uk)
• Listen To This: Escucha Bien! (perezhilton.com)

The E3 Production team has been getting things ready for the coming holiday season, ensuring that all entertainment in Thomas Cook holiday properties is up to the standard their holiday makers expect. A whole host of entirely new additions and tweaks to the existing programme have been made and here are just a few of the things to look out for on your travels.

This year will see us produce brand new, Dizzy & Shades production shows, including 12 new Dizzy & Shades disco formats. In one of the shows we see Dizzy & Shades attending a kind of underwater, Harry Potter style performing arts academy and in the other show, our characters encounter some friends from an alien world who they then take on holiday! To supplement and improve the daytime interaction between guests & entertainers, the entertainment teams will take on the guise of various comedy characters, including the comedy cleaners, a group of outrageously dressed cleaners who are more interested in a gossip and ogle by the pool than doing any actual cleaning. A new voice-over package is being provided across all of the entertainment hotels and we have just agreed a deal with the UK’s most famous voice Peter Dickson the voice of E4, Britain’s Got Talent and X Factor. Peter will be providing the voice over and introductions for all new production shows.

We will also be introducing a new and exciting game show format called the Holiday Rollover and this will run at the end of each evening, giving the guests an opportunity to win some exciting cash prizes. We have already had a specially designed large scale prop produced for this format which will give it some real production value. These are just a few of the things the E3 production team will be implementing in 2009 to raise the professionalism and the interactive element of resort entertainment.

Related articles by Zemanta

• Thomas Cook welcomes return of the package holiday (telegraph.co.uk)
• Thomas Cook confident consumers will still go on holiday (telegraph.co.uk)
• Britons continue to travel despite economic gloom (telegraph.co.uk)

E3 Group enjoyed a successful close to 2008 by finalizing a five year entertainment outsourcing deal with Thomas Cook. The contract was signed on 9th of December during Thomas Cook’s Annual VI Conference, held this year in Antalya, Turkey. Signing for Thomas cook were Chris Medd, Head of Overseas Support and Jackie Stevenson Director of Overseas Operations. Representing the E3 Group were Managing Director Jane Maguire and Group CEO David Hill.

After ten successful years working with Thomas Cook, the E3 Group will now recruit and train all of their overseas entertainment staff. As well as exclusively managing Thomas Cook’s overseas entertainment programmes, E3 will also be responsible for all creative content, including cutting edge production shows and light entertainment concepts.

Speaking about the new deal Jackie Stevenson said: “We want to place even more importance on the entertainment we provide in our hotels in 2009. We believe that forging an even closer partnership with E3 will help us to achieve our ambition of providing the very best in entertainment for Thomas Cook customers.”

The Holiday Stars finale has been won by singer Robin Acton. Robin stole the show with his rendition of “Just The Way You Are”. The event, which took place on the 12th April at the Old Market Theatre in Hove, featured twelve talented finalists all competing for the grand prize - a £2500 holiday voucher plus a paid gig at one of First Choice’s prestigious Holiday Village properties.

The event was a roaring success and the feedback has been fantastic. “I absolutely LOVED Saturday night” said Denise Marques Neves, one of First Choice’s overseas General Managers. “My family and friends thought the show was incredibly professionally produced and they enjoyed every minute of it” said Steve from Capita Insurance Services.

Winner Robin Acton was also suitably impressed. “What a great night” he said before going on to compliment the E3 Group team “…you did a great job which made it easier for me to have a good time”. Robin is due to meet up with the E3 team in the near future to discuss his next appearance for First Choice.

We reported earlier this year that the Holiday Stars finale would take place on Saturday 16th February. The date and the venue have now changed. The big day will now take place on 12th April 2008 and the Old Market Theatre, Hove.

Heat winners from all over the UK are preparing themselves for the 2007 Grand Finale of Holiday Stars, set to take place on Saturday 16th February at the Brighton Dome. Holiday Stars, produced by the E3 Group for First Choice’s prestigious Holiday Village properties, is an international talent search with heats taking place in Europe, the Carribbean and North Africa.

Currently leading the online voting competition is Kirsten Winsborrow, who won her heat of Holiday Stars on the 23rd June 2007 with a rousing rendition of the No Doubt song “Don’t Speak”. There is still an opportunity to vote for your favourite contestants by visiting the Holiday Stars website.

If you are interested in attending the Grand Finale, please call our office on 0845 83 82 822.

Pictured above, heat winner - Kirsten Winborrow.