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Comment: Winter Bookings, by Jeremy Skidmore
There seems to be little let-up these days for the vertically integrated companies.
Following a patchy summer for some and an awful one for others, winter bookings are now struggling.
Go along to your high street travel agent and you should be able to pick up a winter sun holiday for £99.
Of course, there are always bargains at this time of year, but there seem to be more now than we’ve seen for a long time.
It’s partly because people are booking later. But it’s also partly because less people are buying package holidays.
There are worries about the economy and the possibility of war. And, of course, with Christmas coming, it’s an expensive time of year.
As winter is a much smaller market, it is not as big a problem for operators as they face in the summer when holidays are not selling.
But, nevertheless, it’s a concern. And, as usual, the industry will try to solve the problem by offering ever-bigger discounts.
We’re only a couple of months away from the crucial booking period in January. The public has shown that it is lukewarm to the idea of huge offers to stimulate bookings. They simply don’t believe the discounts and are turned off by bargains that look too good to be true.
Let’s hope post-Christmas we see something a bit more creative than posters in shops advertising massive discounts.
Read previous comments by Jeremy Sidmore:
13-Nov-2002 Comment: Timeshare and Resort Conference
05-Nov-2002 Comment: MyTravel
23-Oct-2002 Comment: The ABTA Convention
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