Hays Travel managing director John Hays has called for staggered school holidays so that holiday prices for families can come down outside of term-time.
He was talking on the BBC’s Look North news programme last night after it reported how parents were being fined for taking their children out of school as part of a new crackdown.
The programmes claimed councils in the northeast have already issued thousands of pounds worth of fines after the new rules came in at the beginning of the current academic year.
Stockton council has issued £2,000 of fines, but Redcar and Durham have issued £8,000 and £8,990 respectively.
The report claimed that the differential in price between a holiday in Spain for a family of four this summer when the schools are out compared to in term-time was £1,690.
Asked whether there was a solution to the problem, Hays said: “The government could help.
“For example if I’m going away next week at half term I’ll be paying a lot more for the flights and accommodation than this week.
“It would be quite simple to stagger the holidays so that different schools are out at different times, so that half term is done over three weeks and there would not be such a big peak.”
Travelzoo Europe managing director Richard Singer said he feared the problem would get worse as parents are forced to avoid holidays in term-times, making the price differential even more marked.
He said the travel industry must do all it can to show it is not the cause of high prices even if it can’t reduce costs overall.
“As an industry we do not do a very god job explaining the complexity around how holidays are put together. You can’t just expect a supplier to drop their prices for the UK consumer.
“Prices will rise further as parents clamber for those holidays, family travel will become a luxury only for the wealthy, and entrepreneurial companies will start to offer to pay people’s fines.”
Singer predicted mass civil disobedience among parents if the issue cannot be resolved as they know head teachers have no flexibility to consider a request so they simply won’t bother asking.
As part of Travelzoo’s Parent Trap campaign, which has generated 34,000 signatures on a government petition, the deals publisher is poised to conduct two polls.
The first, aimed at parents and non-subscribers of Travelzoo, will seek to assess the level of awareness of the government’s crackdown on term-time holidays.
The second will ask the trade what impact the new rules are having on business.
Singer said he hopes the push for support will grow its petition towards the 100,000 signatures needed to force a parliamentary debate.
However, a separate petition started by a disgruntled consumer calling for the government to act to cap prices has generated 160,000 signatures. That debate is due to happen on February 24.