This time last year the industry looked quite different than it does today. Post-MMC and post-consolidation the post-Christmas campaigns look quite different too.
Never before has there been such a blatantly integrated campaign by the major operators with their own in-house chains. Consequently industry sources estimate up to 70%of both Airtours and Thomson’s sales are coming via their in-house retailers.
It is the likes of Carlson Worldchoice which is suffering. With the merger with Thomas Cook not yet gone ahead and its own advertising not fully kicked in, it is feeling the pinch. For the moment at least it only has a very small tour operator in the form of Inspirations to support. Going Places, meanwhile, has benefited from some aggressive discounting.
The summer ’99 market is down around 11% on this time last year. Not bad when you consider the whole retail market is having a tough time.
But not good when you consider the scale of the discounting to date. With the delinking of travel insurance from discounts, retailers have gone for the ú100 off per person scenario which works out at around a 30% discount, compared to the up to 25% tag from last year’s promotions. For an industry that is saying it is more interested in profit than market share it is a strange way to kick off the year.
Liz Bird – news editor