Forum - Coming Soon
Travel Agents Should Focus On Domestic Holiday Bookings, Expert Advises

Fri, 10 Oct 2008

UK travel agents have been advised to take advantage of the current economic climate by booking more domestic holidays .

Speaking at the Association of British Travel Agents (ABTA) Convention, Hoseasons chief executive Richard Carrick said that domestic tourism could have its best ever year as an increasing number of Brits cut back on expensive overseas trips in favour of last-minute domestic breaks due to the current financial crisis.

Carrick said volumes for 2008 were up 3.5 per cent year-on-year, with forward bookings for UK breaks in 2009 already up 5 per cent on the same period in 2007.

He predicted fuel prices and exchange rates were likely to push up overseas holiday prices by 10-12 per cent, while domestic price increases were likely to remain in line with inflation at 3-5 per cent.

He also suggested domestic breaks would benefit from customers preference for last minute bookings .

"People still want to go on holiday, but they are likely to book shorter breaks closer to home, as and when they know they can afford it," explained the chief executive. "People are holding on to see if they have the cash ."

"The UK travel agent has its single biggest opportunity to take advantage of that. It is an opportunity for them to fill their boots."

"This is the biggest opportunity to sell Britain ever, and we believe that the travel trade will increasingly see the benefits of promoting domestic holidays in 2009."
add to favouritesnewsletterlink to this pagesend to friendpost comments

Link to this page

Copy and Paste the following HTML into your page.