Mark Warner is an independent

British British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies. ** Britishness, the British identity and common culture * British English, ...

tour operator A tour operator is a business that typically combines and organizes accommodations, meals, sightseeing and transportation components, in order to create a package tour. They advertise and produce brochures to promote their products, holidays and ...

founded in 1974 by entrepreneurs Mark Chitty and Andrew Searle. Based in

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

, it originally specialised in singles' and couples' ski holidays in just one chalet in Switzerland but has since expanded into family and beach resort holidays.

Overview

Mark Warner's summer destinations include beach resorts in

Greece Greece,, or , romanized: ', officially the Hellenic Republic, is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the southern tip of the Balkans, and is located at the crossroads of Europe, Asia, and Africa. Greece shares land borders ...

and

Turkey Turkey ( tr, Türkiye ), officially the Republic of Türkiye ( tr, Türkiye Cumhuriyeti, links=no ), is a transcontinental country located mainly on the Anatolian Peninsula in Western Asia, with a small portion on the Balkan Peninsula in ...

, with facilities including tennis and water-sports centres. Its winter ski programme includes 11 chalet hotels, one chalet and apartments in the

French Alps The French Alps are the portions of the Alps mountain range that stand within France, located in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes and Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur regions. While some of the ranges of the French Alps are entirely in France, others, such as ...

Austria Austria, , bar, Östareich officially the Republic of Austria, is a country in the southern part of Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine states, one of which is the capital, Vienna, the most populous ...

and

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical ...

. Mark Warner has a childcare programme but certain ski properties are reserved for adults, in keeping with the original idea. In 2012, the Levante Beach Resort on

Rhodes Rhodes (; el, Ρόδος , translit=Ródos ) is the largest and the historical capital of the Dodecanese islands of Greece. Administratively, the island forms a separate municipality within the Rhodes regional unit, which is part of the S ...

, a 5-star resort built to Mark Warner's own specifications, was added to the portfolio. In 2010 ex-

Savills Savills plc is a British real estate services company based in London. It is listed on the London Stock Exchange and is a constituent of the FTSE 250 Index. History The business was established by Alfred Savill (1829–1905) in 1855 in London. B ...

director Giles Gale launched a new associated business - Mark Warner Property - to specialise in the sales and marketing of ski property developments in Austria. In 2012 the business was expanded into Switzerland with a particular focus on

Grimentz Grimentz is a village in the district of Sierre in the Swiss canton of Valais. An independent municipality before, it merged on 1 January 2009 with neighboring Ayer, Chandolin, Saint Jean, Saint-Luc and Vissoie to form the municipality of Anniv ...

and the

Valais Valais ( , , ; frp, Valês; german: Wallis ), more formally the Canton of Valais,; german: Kanton Wallis; in other official Swiss languages outside Valais: it, (Canton) Vallese ; rm, (Chantun) Vallais. is one of the 26 cantons forming the S ...

region. In 2014, Mark Warner Holidays was a three-time winner in the British Travel Awards (Best Family Tour Operator edium size Best Activity & Adventure Operator edium sizeand Best All Inclusive Operator edium Size. It was Best Ski Operator according to the Telegraph Travel Awards.

Controversies

In 2007, three-year-old

Madeleine McCann Madeleine Beth McCann (born 12 May 2003) is a British missing person who disappeared from her bed in a holiday apartment in Praia da Luz, Portugal, on the evening of 3 May 2007, at the age of 3. ''The Daily Telegraph'' described the disappeara ...

was abducted from an apartment in

Praia da Luz Praia da Luz (, changing to before a following vowel), officially Luz, is a civil parish of the municipality of Lagos, in Algarve region, Portugal. The population of the civil parish in 2011 was 3,545, in an area of 21.78 km². Also known as ...

, Portugal, which had been booked through Mark Warner.Caroline Gammell
"Madeleine McCann: Apartment was not made crime scene for two months"
''The Daily Telegraph'', 8 August 2008. The company later launched legal action against its insurers to recover earnings lost after holidaymakers stayed away from the Praia da Luz resort due to media coverage of the disappearance, and in 2015 closed its Ocean Club resort in the town. Mark Warner's childcare services were criticised in the BBC's ''Whistleblower'' programme in February 2008. It was discovered that staff were working illegally in Egypt, using tourist visas instead of work visas. The company subsequently issued a statement saying: "It is company policy that all childcare staff employed by Mark Warner must supply two references and submit a form to check their criminal record. There were clearly two occasions where we failed to do this." It apologised and said it would tighten up its procedures. In December 2016, Mark Warner wrote to all of its customers holding live bookings, adding a £50 per person surcharge citing the Pound to Euro exchange rate. The company insisted it was within its rights under booking conditions to make such a charge.

References

External links

* {{UK Hotels Hotel and leisure companies of the United Kingdom Hospitality companies established in 1974 1974 establishments in England