Lates period ‘much more difficult’ than 2024, say industry leaders

Senior travel industry leaders have said this year’s summer lates period has been more challenging than recent years.

Speaking at Travel Weekly’s Future of Travel conference, Hays Travel owner and chair Dame Irene Hays described this financial year as “much more difficult” than last year.

She added the “rhetoric” and “glowing reports” from the rest of the industry “did not ring true” for July and August trading.

“There is absolutely no doubt that July was tough,” she said, adding: “[It was] particularly tough in the first two weeks and August started off really badly.”

More: Hays Travel set to report ’double-digit’ growth in next annual results

Hays said that July finished with less than 1% growth, which was “unusual”, while August improved and returned to growth but not into double-digits.

She noted customers were booking “in swathes” in August for travel that month, highlighting a trend of shorter booking windows over the last two years.

Paul Waters, Premier Travel managing director, agreed that lates this year had been “a tough sell”.

“One of our challenges this year has been lates,” he said, adding: “We are not experts at selling lates, and it’s been the icing on the cake for us for many years and the way that we’ve been able to grow sales going forwards.”

He attributed this challenge to customers shopping around for the best prices and messaging from suppliers on how much agencies are able to discount.

However, Waters said trading overall for the year has seen double-digit growth for departures, predominantly because of selling long-haul, tailor-made, cruise, touring and adventure early.

Lesley Rollo, Dnata Travel Group UK chief executive, echoed these views, telling attendees that the last six weeks had seen “a slowdown” for the firm’s long-haul business, even on destinations that had been “giving and giving” in recent years.

She said the operator “struggled most” on its short-haul business in this period.

Rollo added: “We are more of a long-haul focused business, so we are very lucky in terms of early bookings, a strong order book, higher average booking values and the resilience of affluent and highest-spending customer, which all plays to our strengths.”