Oasis Travel heads to Benidorm for Christmas party

A travel agency has rewarded its team with a trip to Benidorm instead of its usual Christmas party at a local pub.

Heidi Evans and Andy Dean, who own Oasis Travel in Tunstall, Stoke-on-Trent, consulted the agency’s three staff on where they would like to go for a night away.

“They wanted to go to Benidorm,” said Evans, who had never been before.

The owners booked an easyJet holidays package for £2,100, with accommodation at the Hotel Servigroup Venu near the sea front.

The team, including the shop’s three sales consultants Clare Sayer, Jan Lewis and Claire Wright, flew out on December 2 and came back on December 4.

The business has done well this year so we thought, let’s treat the staff

Evans said: “One night rolled into two and we closed the shop for three days. We did do some flight bookings for our business clients while we were out there but mainly we ate and drank.

“It was so nice to get away together with the team. We all get on really well so there were no fallings out and it gave us a chance to look round the hotel and see a bit of Benidorm.”

Normally the agency takes staff and their partners out for a Christmas meal. In the past they have gone to The Furlong pub in Tunstall where there is usually a disco or cabaret entertainment.

Evans added: “The business has done well this year so we thought, let’s treat the staff to show our appreciation of them and do something different rather than a Christmas meal.”

Some of the team were back at work in the shop a few hours after arriving home in the early hours of Tuesday morning. “Three of us back to work on the Tuesday,” said Evans, who added: “But it was well worth it. We would look to do it again!”