UK holiday accommodation company Blue Chip Vacations is predicting 2009 will be a ‘record year’ for bookings – thanks to the falling value of the pound against the dollar and the euro.
The company, which said its bookings are already up 72% year on year, believes as the pound continues to nosedive the cost of holidays abroad will look less and less attractive to the average Brit.
To prove its point it compared prices on a dozen holidays across Europe with comparable holidays in the UK and said it found the majority to be double the cost and, in some instances, three times as much.
“In many ways the UK holiday market is the beneficiary of the economic downturn,” said Liam Gavin managing director Blue Chip Vacations.
“The euro is at its highest level ever so the public are not getting value for money in Europe at the moment. People are cutting back on extraneous expense due to the recession and their money isn’t going very far abroad.
“The travel costs alone are killing foreign holidays but when the exchange rate is so low as well it becomes untenable.”