| Journal: TWUK | Section: |
| Title: | Issue Date: 19/06/00 |
| Author: | Page Number: 13 |
| Copyright: Other |
It’s been a quiet year so far, there’s no dispute about that. But exactly what factor is the cause, is still open to debate by many of our industry colleagues.
Noel Josephides
We all have our theories as to why people don’t book holidays at particular times of the year.For example, does bad weather encourage the booking of a Mediterranean holiday or not? We’ve had very unsettled weather this June so you would have thought there would be an enormous rush to book late holidays.
There is the other school of thought that believes when we are having a spell of fine weather we all feel better and therefore, our minds turn towards booking holidays.
Then, of course, there is the ‘events’ brigade, which believes the European football championships are the reason that bookings in June are suffering.
Ian Murdoch of Laskarina has always been a Wimbledon man, firmly believing that bookings surge just after the tennis championships have finished.
The ‘capacity’ crowd, a group to which I belong, hold the firm opinion that bookings aren’t up to scratch because there is too much to sell and that the available customers are being spread too thinly.
To a greater or lesser extent, I am sure that all of us are right. The Nielsen figures reveal that, after March and April, the total summer 2000 market barely shows an increase.
There is a feeling out there that, when the May figures become available, the total market to date may well be down on last year. Cyprus is the big exception in the Mediterranean.
That the market should be down, when overall CAA licensed numbers are 5% up for this summer, is worrying. Trading, for all of us, is patchy.
Our representatives, John Grew and Sue John, who visit agents making sure they know we exist, report that many are deadly quiet while only a few are busy.
Where are all the customers? Have they gone off with Go? Have they disappeared into the Web once and for all?
This is an uncomfortable time of the year because there is no knowing how the peak season will go. I don’t think anyone imagined that those airlines not guaranteeing surcharges would be asking for between £8 and £10 per seat on Greek routes. How well covered are the airlines that are guaranteeing? Are they taking the hit, or are the fuel suppliers? It’s a subject I know little about.
Sterling has also slipped back and, although still good, the superprofits for those who had not bought forward are slowly evaporating before the bulk of those July and August invoices have to be paid.
All in all, it’s turning out to be a very interesting year and hardly what anyone had expected. This was to be the year of all years but, for those of us dealing in the standard holiday market, it will be nothing special.
This always happens when games are being played in the rarefied atmosphere at the top of the industry.
Big personalities and egos in the UK, Germany and the USA are fighting to be top dog. The airline world is in turmoil and we below the clouds are in for a bumpy ride.
Let’s hope it doesn’t last too long and that we can all get back to selling good holidays and giving a quality service to clients, which I do not believe the industry does, even though the hype says the opposite.
“All in all, it’s turning out to be a very interesting year and hardly what anyone expected”