Travel firms are bracing themselves to take advantage of changes in the UK pension rules from next April, the Abta Travel Convention heard.
Both online travel agent On The Beach and leading Scottish agency chain Barrhead Travel said they were expecting pensioners to use their windfall to buy desirable products like holidays.
From April people of retirement age will be allowed to decide for themselves how to invest their pensions pots rather than having to invest them in a government annuity.
Alistair Daly, OTB chief marketing officer, said: “I think there’s going to be a lot of money coming into the economy from April.
“I’m not suggesting it will all come to the travel space but there is a big opportunity leading up to that and we are going to try to take advantage of that.”
However Bill Munro, Barrhead Travel chairman, warned that despite the estimated value of pensions in the UK that will be affected by the change being £12 billion, a lot of new retirees are not as well off as might be expected.
“The average pension value in the UK is about £30,000. But I think it’s still a great opportunity without any doubt.
“People being fit and healthy well into their old age is hugely beneficial to the travel business. It makes me think I should be selling more UK holidays as well.”
Munro cautioned that no minority group likes to be singled out, so Barrhead was unlikely to come up with marketing campaign specifically for pensioners.
And he added that most 50 and 60-year-olds today do not want to be considered as being in the Saga generation which markets to the over-50s.
“I think we will all just benefit from it. There will be some decent business, I’m quite sure.”