Abta and Advantage have hailed an “incredible start” to the peak sales period with Advantage chief Julia Lo-Bue Said suggesting holiday bookers are saying “sod it” to recession.
But Abta chief Mark Tanzer warned: “You can’t defy gravity. There is a going to be a squeeze on income.”
Tanzer told the Travlaw Big Tent Event in London in January: “It has been an incredible start to the year. We’re aware of clouds on the horizon, but customers seem keen to buy holidays.
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“Clearly, some customer segments will be more impacted than others [by the cost of living]. Maybe people are in denial.”
Lo-Bue Said agreed, saying: “It has been a very positive start. You can’t correlate the economic crisis to what we’re seeing – double-digit growth every week since the turn of the year.
“I call it the ‘sod it’ factor. There are people with savings and a generation who don’t have mortgage payments.
“We’re seeing growth in agents’ bookings – for the hand holding and service – and a lot more unmanaged business travel is being booked through intermediaries.”
She argued: “As an industry, we have to make sure we have the products customers want.”
Business Travel Association (BTA) chief executive Clive Wratten reported “a strong recovery through the back end of last year and the start of this year”, noting a BTA member survey showed revenue up 20% on 2019 “with volumes down but yields higher”.
He argued: “The in-person meeting is back, and SMEs are the ones travelling.
“A lot of airlines are operating reduced capacity and the aviation-booking window is back to about 14 days before travel, so fares have been high with leisure travel so strong.”
However, Wratten noted: “Domestic travel is strong but £1.4 million goes out of the travel management company door every day the trains are on strike.”
UKinbound chief executive Joss Croft reported: “We’ll probably get to 90% of pre-pandemic inbound visitor numbers in 2023 and may get back to 100% of revenue.”
Barclays UK head of hospitality and leisure Mike Saul told the event: “Spending patterns are mixed. People are cautious but do want to look forward to something.”
However, he reported: “Some businesses are saying ‘We might not make our [debt] covenants’.” Debt covenants are the conditions lenders attach to commercial loans.
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