Chav-free adventure holiday company is a huge hit

Mar 14 2009 by Rob Pattinson, The Journal

A TRAVEL firm offering ‘chav-free’ holidays was so inundated with inquiries it’s website crashed. Activities Abroad hit the headlines after sending an email to its database of 24,000 potential customers, offering them travel packages free from people with so-called ‘chav’ names, like Britney and Kylie-Lianne.

But the adventure organisers, based in Stannington, Northumberland, had so many hits on their website they were forced to pull it down and invest in extra space.

Now the firm have claimed the huge interest has helped them find success despite the recession.

Families feeling the pinch combined with the weak pound has seen bookings in the overseas travel sector tail-off by as much as 20%, while Activities Abroad have continued taking reservations at the same rate as last year.

It means they still expect to take away their annual quota of between 3,000 and 4,000 holidaymakers.

Managing director Alistair McClean said: “The response was really positive and sales are more or less the same as last year, which in itself is a huge victory for us.

“The overseas travel industry seems to be in a real mess at the moment, but we’ve managed to stay where we were. It looks like we’re going to be in a really good position coming out of the recession.

“We’re not looking at launching a ‘chav-friendly’ holiday just yet because we’re still busy coping with the response from the last one.”

The firm researched a list of names “you are likely to encounter or not encounter” on one of its holidays.