‘Cautious optimism’ returning to trade

Saturday, 21 Sep, 2009 0

Signs of optimism are returning to the UK travel industry despite continuing tough economic conditions, a survey of Advantage Travel Centres members and supplier shows.

A poll of almost 300 leisure and business agents plus business partners shows that more than half (55%) are quite optimistic for the future, with eight per cent saying they are very optimistic.

But the majority of respondents (82%) believe the economic downturn will continue to have a significant impact on their businesses over the next two years. Nine out of ten of those surveyed said this had impacted on their businesses in the last 12 months.

Online booking is ranked next as having the most impact (79%) going forward followied by discounting (74%), business overheads (71%) and taxation on the industry (64%).

Those in the leisure sector found that customers are shopping around more so agents are having to work harder to secure bookings.

Consumers are also booking later and are demanding more price matching. Holidays outside the eurozone have increased in popularity and more people are booking online.

Business agents are seeing clients becoming more cost conscious, booking at the last minute, spending less and booking more online themselves.

More than a third of leisure customers (37%) have been spending the same or more than last year, a figure that drops to 19% of business travel clients.

Price is more important than ever, with 85% saying this is the top factor, up 20 percentage points over 2008.

Environmental concerns affect only one per cent of customers as they are more concerned about securing a good deal than reducing their carbon emissions, the poll found.

by Phil Davies

Phil Davies

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