Comment: Insights into a brighter future

As you would expect, it was a fascinating and enlightening discussion at the final Travel Weekly Business Breakfast of the year – and it was heartening to hear our panellists agree with the report’s findings of a resilience in demand for overseas holidays.

Together they delivered a measured but glowing assessment of the state of the industry in general and the outbound sector in particular, despite the fall in sterling, the uncertainties around Brexit and the squeeze on UK household spending.

Abta’s Mark Tanzer expressed concern on Brexit that “nothing has changed in a year and the government seems to be in a Pollyanna world where it thinks everything will be OK”. Yet he noted: “Our members’ turnover is at a record high.”

Miles Morgan admitted to being “very grumpy” at losing the right to recoup the cost of card transactions from January, but also admitted to being “dead excited about next year” and reported: “Cruise is very strong.”

With Tui’s Helen Caron also sounding an upbeat note on cruise and all-inclusive holidays in particular, and easyJet’s Sophie Dekkers pointing to a near-10% increase in passenger numbers for the 12 months to September, it was clear representatives from a range of sectors were all on bullish form.

For more analysis of the issues discussed at the breakfast, make sure you check out the 2017-18 Insight Report, which will be available on the Travel Weekly website next month.