THOMSON has performed marginally better than its rivals in a market which is down around 30% on last year’s post-Christmas campaign.
In the three days between Christmas and the new year, the market leader was believed to be down around 15% having sold 16,000 holidays.
JMC sold 11,000, down around 25%, Airtours was down 40% at 8,000 and First Choice sold 7,000, a decrease of 30%.
Unijet was the only operator to buck the trend with sales on a par with last year. An aggressive direct-mail campaign is thought to be the reason for its strong performance.
On the retail side, Going Places has had a dismal post-Christmas with its share dipping from 21% in 1998 to 14% this year.
Lunn Poly held 28% of the share, up four percentage points, with Thomas Cook nudging 20%.
In the days following the New Year Bank Holiday, Thomson again outperformed its rivals with Airtours, First Choice and JMC roughly on a par with each other.