Holiday bookings are coming in closer to departure despite being in the midst of the peak summer booking period.
That is according to Kuoni UK managing director Mark Duguid who said: “It’s a very late market. Kuoni has not traditionally been in the lates space, but we’re seeing a large amount of late business.”
Speaking at a Travlaw Big Tent Event in London in January, Duguid said: “We’re pivoting to meet demand to complex, experiential destinations in Africa, India, the Far East, Australasia and North America. We have customers explicitly asking for bucket list destinations they want to tick off.”
At the same time, he identified value for money as “another big trend”, saying: “The top demand coming through is for value. We need to offer value for money.”
Duguid suggested: “Brands like Kuoni may have been deluding ourselves [on this] for a while.”
Brian Young, G Adventures managing director for the UK and Europe, noted: “We’re seeing growth in active areas, seeing more people wanting active adventure holidays – hiking, biking – and a shift to an older demographic being more active, but they don’t want to camp.
“So, we have people staying in hotels with a nuance or in a spectacular location. People who are older want to be active but also want finer things alongside.”
He said G Adventures had launched 25 new trips for this year, “the most we’ve released in our history”, and reported bookings “16% up year on year”, insisting: “Adventure has gone from being niche to being mainstream.”
Young added: “Solo traveller demand has grown phenomenally. Some people want to travel with other solo travellers and that dynamic is different to going with couples or groups, so we separate them.
“We’re probably the biggest operator of solo holidays out of the UK now.”