Recession brings back the traditional package holiday

In the recession the traditional package holiday is finding renewed favour as holidaymakers hedge against the risks of their holiday becoming unaffordable. The recession has reduced the willingness of holidaymakers to use the budget airlines and book their own accommodation ? it is safer to book a package. ABTA has reported that bookings are moving away from the Eurozone, bookings to Egypt are reported to be up 38% and to Turkey 32%.

Both TUI and Thomas Cook cut capacity earlier this year in order to maintain prices, some reports say by as much as 25%, people are trading down from villas to inclusive packages. The Maldives is reported to be targeting the mass market, encouraging charter flights and building cheaper hotels and resorts, looking for an extra 100,000 UK holidaymakers in market where arrivals in the Maldives have fallen sharply resulting in redundancies.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/travelnews/5135618/Maldives-targets-mass-market-with-affordable-hotels.html

Charles Starmer-Smith writing in today’s Telegraph Travel reminds readers that in July 2005 the Telegraph had predicted that the rise of independent travel would spell the end of the package holiday. They wrote in the summer of 2005 ?The package holiday is a dying formula which has manifestly failed to keep up with the public’s expectations..?

Between 2003 and 2007 independently booked holidays out of the UK increased from 21.7m to 27.2m, while package holidays were flat at about 19m a year. Mintel have reported that in the year to June 2009 23 million UK holidaymakers took packages.  

The recession has changed that
?    Thomas Cook’s all-inclusive summer breaks are reported up 50% in the last month on last year’s figures.
?    TUI are reporting that all-inclusive holiday bookings have risen 10% in recent weeks

An all-inclusive holiday package ensures that your money is protected and fixes the cost of the holiday. The decline in the value of the pound against the euro had discouraged people from making their own arrangements or going self-catering and the boom in low cost flights

For more see Return of the Package Holiday