FAM TRIP FEEDBACK:
Tuan Azran Burah, Kanoo Travel joined a recent FAM trip to Las Rozas Village in Madrid and La Vallee Village in Paris. This is what he thought:

What did you think of the shopping villages?
The villages in Madrid and France are both located away from the busy cities. The villages offer a very unique feel to shopping for luxury brands with a very casual and comfortable atmosphere. They are clean, open and welcoming. To add to it all, the special offers and discounts were great!

Do you think the shopping villages will be popular with clients from this region?
Given that most families extend their stays in Europe for long periods, the Chic Shopping Villages and day tours to the countryside will be a popular add-on.

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In Paris, the village is just five minutes from Disneyland, so the kids can enjoy Disney whilst the parents shop at the village. It couldn’t get better.

Apart from the international luxury brands, each village also features local designers. I guess this gives the visitor a taste of local design and fashion trends too. The local brands were surprisingly outstanding.

What was the highlight of the trip?
We were treated to a Flamenco performance in Madrid which was great, and of course visiting Disneyland and the Eiffel Tower in Paris. It was a superb itinerary, we were busy, but at the end of the day learnt quite a lot about the cities we visited and the shopping villages too.

MAKE COMMISSION NOW!
Chic Outlet Shopping has launched the first commissionable product for the travel industry which provides key partners with the ideal add on to European travel itineraries for group and FIT travellers.

The luxury Shopping Express shuttle service will operate from key city centres in partnership with some of the leading excursion/coach operators across Europe including Cityrama (France), Madrid Shopping Tour (Madrid), and JJ Kavanagh (Ireland) transporting customers to each of the nine Chic Outlet Shopping Villages. Tickets can be booked online.

Approved Travel Industry partners have the opportunity to benefit from net rates (up to 25 percent off with the exception of La Vallee Village which is capped at 10%) on ticket sales.

ATN asked representatives from Value Retail what was so appealing about their European shopping villages:

“Shopping is a way of life in the Middle East, but what’s interesting is noticing how different the shopping experience is in Europe compared to the retail experience here. We hope that’s what is endearing us to our Middle Eastern customers”
Sally Beams, director, Marketing, PR and Tourism, Value Retail

“I always present La Vallee Village as a relaxing shopping experience. In Paris we compete in a sense with the department stores, but customers also want another experience, and of course we have all the Disney Land hotels just five minutes away as people might come to Disney but extend their stay by a night to visit us too.”
Bernard Kouao, tourism manager, La Vallee Village

“We have seen over the last four years amazing increases in Middle Eastern visitors to Munich.All five-star hotels understand the demands of that clientele so we invited all the concierges from the hotels to brainstorm with them about how to cater to our Middle Eastern customers.

We came up with really important ideas like a prayer room in Ingelstat village, Arabian menus, translation services, and a limousine service that you can book directly into the village.”
Jens Riewenherm, marketing director, Germany, Value Retail