ILOVETOUR @ BUCS Conference 2010!!

15th July 2010

New website coming soon & dates for 2011!!

10th July 2010

Our new website will be going live at the end of August- for those of you who just can't hang on (and we do understand!) here are our dates for 2011:

Saloufest 2011:Week 1: 9-15 April 2011 

Week 2: 16-22 April 2011

Festival Italia 2011:

Week 1: 16-22 April 2011 

Week 2: 25 April-1 May 2011

Damfest 2011:

Week 1: 10-14 April 2011 

Week 2: 17-21 April 2011

In the meantime, make sure you follow us on twitter (@ILOVETOUR) and keep track of our adventures through our facebook group.

If you'd like to make a provisional reservation or ask us to hold some team places for you (as over 45 clubs have already- which is pretty crazy!) please email info@ilovetour.co.uk and we will do what we can for you!

2011 is going to be incredible and we're working hard to make your money go further without increasing our tour prices!! Enjoy your summer- see you at Oktoberfest!!

ILOVETOUR Press Release: SALOUFEST WILL RETURN!

15th April 2010

Saloufest, the UK’s largest student sports festival, has grown to become the principle destination for British University students at Spring Break (Easter). Earlier this month, the event was the subject of a large amount of international media coverage, a great deal of it highlighting the social aspects of festival along with some speculation as to the future of the event.

Commenting on the media coverage, ILOVETOUR’s Managing Director, Sam Seward explains: 

“As Saloufest is a sports festival, it was disappointing that the majority of the media coverage involved filming, photographing or interviewing students after midnight, while they were out having fun in the bars and clubs of Salou instead of during the day at one of the fifteen top class sports venues we operate. Given the event has been around since 2002, it seems strange that the media has only now expressed an interest.”

Seward added: “Missing from most of the coverage was any real impression of what is a fantastic sporting event of phenomenal size and complexity. Over the course of the 4 days of competition (across the 2 weeks) over 450 different teams and 8,000 students from all over the UK competed in basketball, cricket, cheerleading, dance, US flag football, field hockey, lacrosse, football, rugby union, rugby league, netball, tennis, ultimate (disc) and waterpolo events.”

Salou’s Mayor, Mr Pere Granados, commenting on exactly why Saloufest has suddenly become news- told the ‘Diari of Taragonna’ newspaper:

“There are obvious political interests behind it. The only difference between this and other years is that I am the mayor and there is a new governing team.”

Mr Granados continued, commenting on the media’s handling of the festival:

“It has not been reported fairly. There were self-serving photos and some of them were even staged, according to what people tell me. They were looking for news stories where there were none; I am referring to the evidence and the police reports in my possession. It is obvious that the whole thing has been blown out of all proportion.”

Despite widespread media reports of damage and students on the ‘rampage’, the following was reported in the same local paper, the ‘Diari de Tarragona’Newspaper on the 9^th April 2010.

“Over the eight nights (divided into two periods) that the 8,400 British university studentsspent in Salou, neither the night-time incidents requiring police intervention, nor the number of patients needing treatment in the Salou emergency room were anywhere near the figures normally seen in the month of August.

According to the Local Police, during the night shift (22.00 - 06.00) of the week from 11 to 17 August 2008, they had to attend a total of 363 incidents or an average of 51 a night. During the same week in 2009, the number of incidents was 374 or an average of 53 a night. During the Saloufest, without counting the last night (yesterday for the reader), there were 93 incidents, of which only 30 were related to the British students, in other words, an average of seven per night. Moreover, the police state that “the young people always responded well to the indications and recommendations given”.

Seward, responding to the reported “outrage” of local residents said:

 “In terms of the reported complaints from local residents, we received only 4 actual complaints from local residents over the course of the whole 2 weeks, all in relation to noise, so it seems again this element has been exaggerated and misreported. Last year’s event involved over 5,000 students being in resort at once and during that event we didn’t actually receive a single complaint from any local residents. Saloufest is an incredible festival set in an amazing town and we’re very lucky to enjoy such a strong relationship with the local people.”

He added: “We’re very grateful for the support of Salou’s mayor, Mr Pere Granados and the Salou municipal council and of course the professionalism and dedication of the local Police and the Catalan Police (Mossos d'Esquadra).

Salou is first and foremost a family destination and rightly so, it has fantastic hotels, a brilliant infrastructure and local services as well as some of the finest beaches in Europe. Our sports festivals operate in a traditionally quiet period in Salou and local businesses have always been happy to receive our guests, while local residents have had little cause to complain as our students are accommodated in an area with very little residential property. 

With the resort’s support we are very pleased to confirm that, despite reports to the contrary, Saloufest will return in 2011. I’d like to add that we are committed to supporting the local council’s aims in relation to not endorsing, accepting or supporting anti-social behaviour of any kind.”

**** Ends ****

Looking for the photos from tour?

5th April 2010

Sports Results Saloufest

1st April 2010

Congratulations!

Get More Tour!!

18th March 2010

Please visit www.ILOVEMORE.co.uk and check out our latest safety initiative.

As ever, ILOVETOUR lead the sports festivals market and are pleased to confirm the support of BUCS and the NUS as well as our other partners in our latest safety awareness campaign.

Please send the link www.ILOVEMORE.co.uk to your tourists this week so they take the message on before embarking on the greatest trip of their lives!!!

Group Travel Info UPDATE

10th March 2010

Please note we are sending out your final room allocations and travel details at the end of this week.
If you have not recieved your travel vouchers and accommodation allocation by Friday 12th March 4pm, please call the ILOVETOUR office.

We will be issuing insurance and safety paperwork on Wednesday 17th March- so please contact us on the 18th March if you have any questions or issues in relation to that information.

Thanks for your paitence!

CalellaFest 2010 joins ILOVETOUR.co.uk

5th February 2010

CalellaFest, the longest serving university sports festival available to UK students, has joined the ILOVETOUR series of University Sports Festivals!  The event will now be operated by the team behind ‘Saloufest’, ‘Festival Italia’ and ‘Damfest’ events under the guidance of managing director, Sam Seward.  CalellaFest 2010 will merge with Saloufest 2010 – making this the world’s biggest university sports festival to date.

Teamlink Sports Tours’ managing director, Mark Gardner, believes the merger represents a positive step for both brands going forward.  “We are delighted to be able to work with Sam Seward and his team at ILOVETOUR to offer this amazing opportunity for the two great festivals to join forces in one amazing week!  Naturally this decision was not taken lightly- and changing the venue to Salou for this year’s tour was motivated only by TeamLink & ILOVETOUR’s desire to give you the best possible tour experience- as always.”

The move also represents a huge boost for ILOVETOUR’s selection of events.  ILOVETOUR MD Sam Seward explains: “CalellaFest is a well-loved, much-respected festival and the ILOVETOUR team and I are hugely excited to be getting behind it. We’ve all kinds of brilliant ideas for CalellaFest 2011- but for now we’re devoting all our energy to the massive task of running this year’s combined Calellafest & Saloufest Week 1 event in beautiful Salou! We’ve got some fantastic surprises in store and I don’t think it’s an exaggeration to say this event will be bigger and better than any sports fest ever!”

With Calellafest in their portfolio, ILOVETOUR are now indisputably the market leader in student sports festivals with over 10,000 students attending their Easter events alone each year.
Constantly setting the standard in event quality, safety management and wow-factor-  where ILOVETOUR lead, other sports festival organisers follow.

Click here for the latest ILOVETOUR News- www.ilovetour.co.uk/news.php

Click here to join the ILOVETOUR  Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=21205976371&ref=ts

Press/commercial enquiries can be directed to: media@ilovetour.co.uk

For further details on the festivals visit www.calellafest.com and www.ilovetour.co.uk

ILOVETOUR Fancy Dress Themes Announced!!!

3rd February 2010

After much deliberation- we're pleased to announce the following as the 2010 ILOVETOUR official tour nights themes!

There will be a prize for the team/uni with consitantly the best fancy dress effort for the week- decided by the Student Assistance Team- as always.

1.       Geeks vs Superheroes
- Release your inner SpiderMan (or Peter Parker).

2.       Over 60’s Bingo Night (OAP’s)
-  Zimmer frames and incontinence pants time!

3.       Tour Shirts or Your Fancy Dress.
-  Prizegiving night means you can wear your uni colours with pride- or express yourselves with your very own tour theme!!

4.       Rubik’s Cube Night.
- you know the drill by now- pick a colour and get swapping!

Final Balances & Drop Outs

1st February 2010

Please note that the final payment deadlines published are not flexible, unless (as stated in our terms and conditions) your group leader has made contact with us and negotiated an extension.

Online tourists can expect to see their tour places cancelled within 24 hours of the published payment deadline IF they have failed to pay the balance.

Group leaders of offline bookings must contact us if they suspect their cheques/BACS payments will not arrive by the deadline- or they too risk cancellation.

We will always endeavour to be as flexible as possible, however with 10,000 students travelling with us this Easter, it is unfortunately impossible for us to offer the quality of tour our clients expect without completing the bookings/payment process on schedule. We thank you for your understanding!!

Welcome back party people!

16th January 2010

Welcome back and happy new touring year!!

We hope you all had a fantastic Christmas and are raring to go with the new semester- but more importantly are ready for tour. Your preparations should be in full swing given there is only a trifling 70 days or so until the best week of the year!

A reminder to you group leaders that the payment deadlines are nearly upon us:

- If your team are one of the 7,000 or so students heading to Spain, your payment deadline is the 29th January 2010 at 16:00 (that's 4pm in plain speak!).

- For the 2,000 of you going to Italy- your deadline is 1600 on the 5th February!

- Finally, for the hardy 500 Damfest elite, you have until the same time on the 2nd February to get the readies in.

Please don't wait until the last minute and don't miss out!!

IMPORTANT- all group leaders should have received their main pre-tour information letter. If you've not received the PDF (sent by email) and think you should have- contact us now!!

Watch this space for Fancy Dress themes- these will be announced very soon. 

Merry Christmas from ILOVETOUR!!

18th December 2009

The SET Sports Tours/ILOVETOUR office will be closed from 3pm on Christmas eve, 24^th December 2009.

The office will re-open at 08:30 on Monday 4^th January 2010. During this period emails may be sporadically checked but if you have any requests or questions regarding your tour booking or quotation, please contact us as soon as possible.

On behalf of the whole team here at ILOVETOUR, we’d like to wish you a merry Christmas, thank you for your business in 2009 wish you a happy and prosperous new year!!

Today's the day!

4th December 2009

Remember- our deadline for deposit payments is 4pm today! Most sports at both weeks of Saloufest are sold out. Got a late booking? We know you love tour too and we MAY be able to squeeze you in- just give us a call!

If your group already has a booking and you believe your team are going to have issues meeting the deadline- please make sure you get in touch with us ASAP.

We are able to offer extensions until Monday- 12 Noon- for groups requiring a little extra time- please just get in touch and get an extension granted by one of our office team!

Pay your £60 deposits by 16:00 on Monday 23rd November to get 1:20 Free Places!!

22nd November 2009

Please remember to pay your £60 deposit by 16:00 on 23/11/09 to qualify for our double free places (that's 1:20 instead of 1:40) deadline. This has been extended once (from the 10th November) already- so will not be extended again!!

Deposits paid after today will be counted towards the regular free places ratio of 1:40 per person.

Remember all deposits- offline or online need to be paid by the 4th December 2009!

Saloufest- Many sports already sold out both weeks!

3rd November 2009

Saloufest has, again, sold in record time, with many sports, most notably netball, lacrosse, rugby and football at near capacity. Captains/group leaders, if you haven't got online and set your group up yet- do it now! If you'd prefer not to use the online booking tool, you need to email us for a booking form and get the deposits rolling in!

Italia and Damfest still have availability for the above sports, with hockey looking especially fantastic in the Dutch party capital! Don't forget to achieve DOUBLE free places- that's 1:20, you'll need to get your deposits in (£60 per paying passenger) by 4pm on the 23rd November! After that it's just plain 'ol 1:40 free places as usual! 2010 will be a special year for ILOVETOUR and numbers are already looking stronger and lovlier than last year's amazing 8,000 tourists!! So... invite your housemates, old boys and girls and anyone who wants to experience the best week of their lives- and GET ON TOUR!!!!

Graduates looking for work?

10th October 2009

Sports, travel, event management? Your dream job? Maybe! Click on the link below and find out.

We're looking for graduates to join our world class office operations team. Applicants should be organized, motivated and hungry for a real challenge. If you or someone you know is job hunting why not forward them a link to this page? Applications close mid-November- so don't hang around!!

Click here to download

Saloufest FREE PACHA PARTY confirmed!!

28th September 2009

We've done it! The scene is set for the best day of your life!! We're finishing BOTH weeks of Saloufest with a FREE Pacha party!! 5,000 students in one of the world's greatest superclubs!! Watch this space for our DJ's, entertainers, discount drinks promotions and celebrity line up!!

This party is EXCLUSIVELY for Saloufest participants and will be an incredible scene to collect your trophies and prizes and celebrate the end of the best week of your life so far!! This is ILOVETOUR's 10th birthday party and you do no want to miss out!!

Click here to download the flyer

Welcome to the new ILOVETOUR.co.uk

25th September 2009

Hi all! Welcome back! We hope you're having a fantastic Fresher's week. We're very pleased to unveil our new website- complete with our fantastic online booking platform. We're still developing the site and the website but we're happy to say you can begin booking as of today- so go ahead and register as a group leader.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY ILOVETOUR.co.uk!!!

12th September 2009

2010 represents TEN glorious years of our running sports tours and we want to celebrate. Our first gift to you, our beloved tourists is FIVE POUNDS. Yes £5 off all our brochure prices for our Easter 2010 tours. In addition to this we are giving you DOUBLE FREE PLACES.

That's one free place for every 20 tourists. All you need to do is have paid your booking deposits by the 10th November 2009!! Easy!! Any bookings received after the 10th November will still benefit from our generous free place ratio of 1 per 40 paying tourists!!! That's TWO birthday pressies for you, our fantastic tourists!