Early bookers face barrage of offers

The January price wars have got underway, with Thomas Cook and Lunn Poly launching rival campaigns in a bid to boost bookings. Thomas Cook’s ‘the world on sale’ campaign, backed by television advertising, is offering customers various deals including free insurance and free flights on some holidays, and discounts on extras like currency exchange, car parking, car hire. Lunn Poly is offering discounts of up to 30% on some holidays, free child places with Thomson and Skytours, free insurance on all Summer 2004 holidays and two kids for £1 and no flight supplements with Skytours. Managing director, Chris Mottershead said: “There’s a lot of talk about people booking holidays later, but January remains the most popular month to book a summer holiday by far. More than a third of the nation books a holiday during January and February because it’s the best time to get a great holiday deal.” TUI is backing its £11 million campaign with an investment in new technology that ‘whipsers’ messages to people passing its high street shops. The spoken messages, triggered by motion sensors, says things like: “Ooo…you would look great on a Lunn Poly holiday…” or “Pssst…have you checked out our latest deals…”. It has been fitted at six stores including London, Glasgow and Manchester. The technology has also been used by Marks and Spencer and Peter Jones. If the two operators are successful at attracting early bookers it will put MyTravel under more pressure. The beleagured operator is also offering deals to early bookers in the form of a series of incentives in its ‘Star Buys’ brochure, which features Airtours holidays. Holidaymakers booking early with Airtours can choose from: two kids a pound, up to 25% off the brochure price or up to £300 off the brochure price. Airtours is also offering up to 250,000 free child places and no flight supplements. Airtours Holidays marketing director Robin Parry said he thought consumers were cynical about offers like free insurance and free child places. “We want to change this and earn their trust”, he said. As reported by TravelMole in December, First Choice is banking on its sponsorship of the television programme, “I’m A Celebrity?Get Me Out Of Here”. The operator has already ruled out offering large discounts to attract early bookers. Chief executive, Peter Long said: “We have seen the impact of early promotional offers, and the impact felt by one of our competitors of giving them away. Don’t try to induce customers to book because all you are going to do is get small incremental volume and undersell what you could sell later.” It is not just the big four that are seeking to attract early bookings. The Co-operative Travel Trading Group (CTTG) launched what it called “its first major assault on the UK travel market” on Christmas Day. The campaign, backed by television advertising offered £50 off selected summer packages. CTTG chief operating officer, Mike Greenacre will be talking to TravelMole later in the week about the success of the campaign.