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What will the customer pay and when will they book?
Monday, 24 Jun, 2009
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TravelMole Guest Opinion by youtravel.com sales and marketing director Paul Riches
Figures released at the recent Vision conference organised by World Travel Market Market claim that the overall market is down 15% and revenue is down nine per cent compared to this time last year.
Naturally the pundits out there will be saying that these are grave times and that this heralds the death knoll for more businesses.
However, surely considering we have seen some truly major collapses, erratic currency rates and employment worries at the highest for a decade, the fact that these figures are not showing a far more gloomy picture is something to be relieved about?
The figures quoted largely refer of course to the mainstream tour operator-led part of the industry, but within the dynamic packaging sector, our figures are not dissimilar to these. At youtravel.com we are out-performing the market slightly which proves the long term sustainability of the dynamic packaging sector – despite what the nay-sayers have said in the past – and more importantly a shift in how we are doing business.
The online side of our business is increasingly important to us, with XML feeds being the fastest growing means of communication with our agent partners. However, we are still seeing a lot of bookings through ‘traditional’ channels, i.e. Teletext and call centres, for special offers and promotions with key partners.
The challenge now for the whole industry is what will the customer pay and when will they book. However, the indications are that customers are starting to think about high season holidays.
We believe that we are in the right place to take advantage of this. Trends towards later and later booking means that to have a dynamic and non-brochured product fits perfectly with this environment. We’re able to react instantly to market demands with pricing adjustments and the ability to flex our product portfolio.
A few months ago there were concerns over customers being worried about the financial protection aspects of the industry and moving back to the high street and big brands, and away from the DP market.
While this is still an important debate, there’s so far no evidence of our sector performing worse than the market as was predicted by the industry’s talking heads.
As we enter the lates period, our sales are up considerably year-on-year, with June sales showing double digit growth to this time last year. We are optimistic this will continue over the next few months providing there is flight capacity in high season.
Now is the time to roll up your sleeves and get the bookings in, and not, I believe, for talking down an industry which has already had a rocky – to say the least – first half of the year.
Phil Davies
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