Agents across the land will be breathing a sigh of relief as the big tour operators prepare to delay the launch of next summer’s brochures until the beginning of June.
The situation in Kosovo has severely dented demand for this summer’s holidays and the likes of Thomson, Airtours and First Choice still have significant capacity to shift.
St Andrews Travel managing director Andrew Dickson is his usual blunt self about the state of the market.
“It is terrible. People are not spending any money. I’m sure there are a lot of people who have been put off booking a holiday because of the situation in Kosovo. There is a real wait-and-see attitude.”
But what is really behind this change of attitude by the big operators? Surely they haven’t suddenly become moralistic about early launches and concerned about retailers having to sell three seasons at once?
Agents, in the past, have voiced concerns that with all the early launches flooding the market it was very difficult for them to find time to take their own holidays.
In response, Airtours deputy managing director Richard Carrick in his previous role as marketing director was famously quoted as saying that travel agents’ holidays were “an irrelevance”. He made this comment after he justified why Airtours took the unprecedented step of launching its summer ’97 programmes at the beginning of July 1996.
Customer demand was the key reason cited for the early launch. But Carrick also admitted that Airtours wanted to increase its market share of brochured holidays sold before Christmas.
The strategy was a success. Thomson wasn’t ready and the other major operators were also caught out. Determination not to let that happen again has led to all the major operators making sure they were ready to go on sale, at least electronically, from May 1. This has meant any competitive advantage in launching early has now disappeared. Now that all the operators are ready to go on sale and nobody can gain an advantage, the customer demand arguments have been conveniently dropped.
Sunworld admitted it made a mistake by going on sale with all its winter 1998/99 brochures at the beginning of November ’97.
Another reason for the change of heart is surely the distribution issue. The whole marketplace has changed in the last year with the consolidation in both the tour operating and travel agency sector. Shooting yourself in the foot has never meant as much as it does now to the vertically integrated operators.
Why hurt your own retailer at a time when it can make more money from the lates market than it can on trying to secure early bookings for the following summer season by offering huge discounts?
Everything is now geared towards shareholders’ interest rather than customers’ concerns.
Airtours sales, marketing and development director Ed Sims justified its change of tune by arguing operators have to adapt their strategy to the changing economicclimate.
“It is a sign of the industry maturing. Agents presented their arguments about later launches two years ago but tour operators are now more prepared to listen.
“The competitive advantage has gone. With improving technology the best advantage you can get when you launch electronically is 6hrs.”
Thomas Cook tour operating managing director Simon Vincent backed the delayed launch. “We have consistently spoken out against early launches and have always said it is driven by the trade, not the consumer.”
“The message from retailers is that they do not want launches in April or May. It means they are selling more seasons which leads to more complexities. Even June is pushing it a bit.”
Airtours UKLGDistribution Division managing director Peter Shanks believes the June launch date makes little material difference from last year’s May 1 date. But he predicted a strong lates market this year.