Short-haul destinations are the bread and butter of the flight-only market, but suppliers claim the greatest growth lies in long haul. They say they are seeing a rise in demand for more exotic destinations such as Mexico, India and Egypt.
Avro managing director Michael Vinales said that while Florida was the biggest seller in the long-haul market, Cancun was proving popular before Hurricane Wilma struck and the Dominican Republic was also picking up.
“Egypt is also going to be big,” said Vinales. “A lot of people are buying property in Sharm el-Sheikh.”
The advantages of selling a long-haul flight compared to a short-haul fare are obvious:
the higher fare will mean you have the potential to make more money and, when clients travel to more exotic destinations, such as Sri Lanka, they are more likely to book extras such as accommodation or car hire.
“Customers will want to sort out their first night at least, especially if they haven’t been before,” said Vinales.
But he warned agents not to turn their backs on the short-haul market. “Short haul is still where the volume is, and it’s better to sell 10 flights at
£10 profit each than two at £20 profit.”
Freedom Flights agreed. “We are seeing rising demand for Florida and the Caribbean and for Egypt, but short haul is where the money is,” said a spokesman.
The vast majority of demand is still to Spain and the Spanish islands, with Malaga and Majorca alone accounting for 40% to 50% of the market, according to Directline Holidays sales director Matthew Flint.
“The Spanish flight-only market is huge and so much bigger than other destinations,” said Flint. “It’s made up of second home owners and holidaymakers and it has the advantage of plenty of charter flights, unlike ‘newer’ destinations such as Greece and Turkey that don’t have nearly as many.”
But demand for flight-only is slowly but surely shifting eastwards, particularly towards Turkey, Bulgaria and even Montenegro, according to Avro.
“There is evidence people are snapping up holiday homes in these places, but also there has been a rise in the number of people wanting dynamic packages to Turkey and other eastern Mediterranean destinations,” added Vinales.
