First Class Holidays has taken the unusual step of guaranteeing the prices of all its holidays from now for the whole of 2020 in response to rising demand.
The luxury long haul tour operator has pledged that the prices it quotes from this month for holidays, including flights, for all of next year will not go up.
Although the operator put out a similar pledge last year, it did not offer the guarantee until April.
The operator has analysed last year’s data and flight fares in order to estimate prices for next year. Flight prices for next year have yet to be released.
Managing director Dan Gathercole said: “It’s a genuine estimation; we have looked at the data and the flights. We think the prices are realistic; some of them we have frozen and some we have put increases on.”
Gathercole, who stressed the move was not a response to market conditions but because of demand, said he did not believe it was right to tell clients forward holiday prices with a warning that the prices might go up.
“My background is retail and I don’t think you can give a quote where you say ‘this might not be the price’,” he said.
He is hopeful the guarantee will encourage more conversions. “Around 25% of our enquiries are for beyond April 2020. I want agents to start promoting 2020 holidays because of the massive demand. In times of uncertainty, giving people levels of certainty is quite important.”