The woman credited with making property programmes sexy is turning her attention to holidays.
Kirstie Allsopp, together with her fellow Location, Location, Location presenter Phil Spencer, has started filming a new Channel 4 travel show, called Kirstie & Phil: Holidays Uncovered, due to broadcast in January.
The show will have a Wish You Were Here..?-style format and will target a mass-market audience.
The trade has broadly welcomed the return of a family-orientated holiday programme in the peak selling season.
But there was concern about Allsopp’s pledge to tackle inflated school holiday prices. Discussing the issue in The Times, she said: “It’s outrageous. It completely drives me totally potty. We are going to name and shame the worst offenders.
“I want to know that they are not making excessive profits out of the fact that we are enclosed within these school holidays.”
Ian Hailes, head of product and commercial at Cosmos Holidays, said many popular family destinations were forced to raise prices during the peak season to compensate for a dearth of visitors during the rest of the year.
“It is not as if operators are trying to cream off unnecessary profits in the high season,” he added.
“If people knew what tour operators’ margins were they’d probably fall off their chairs.”
Noel Josephides, Aito’s director of industry affairs, said if schools staggered their holidays during the summer, prices would be lower across a broader season.
“Somewhere, somehow, there has to be some money made in this business,” he added. “The programme will change nothing for the simple fact that consumers already get an extraordinarily good deal.”
An Abta spokesman said: “This is an easy target that comes up time and again. The school holidays are peak time so everybody pays more, not just families.”