Touring and adventure suppliers remain positive about 2023 sales despite the squeeze on household budgets, as holidaymakers in their sector are still prioritising travel.
Giles Hawke, chief executive at Cosmos Tours, said his firm’s main clientele of older travellers were relatively insulated from the cost-of-living concerns.
“They have saved more money, don’t have big outgoings and are desperate to travel,” he told an audience at Adventure Together, a hybrid conference organised by tours platform TourRadar in Vienna.
“Younger ones may trade down in duration or number of holidays but I think we will have a good year next year.”
Fellow panellist Brian Young, managing director at G Adventures, said he is “still fairly optimistic” for 2023 because of the pent-up demand in the market after two years of Covid restrictions.
He said the airports chaos this summer had deterred some people, who may have been waiting for the disruption to calm down.
Furthermore, touring and adventure holidays are a “more considered purchase” and offer a “sensible price point”, so people may be looking to the sector for 2023 after an “initial rush” in 2022 to beach destinations.
He called younger travellers “the Monzo generation” as they save up in their Monzo bank accounts each month for holidays.
“That is sacrosanct, they are savvy savers that group,” he commented.
Natasha Lawrence, commercial and product development director at youth operator Contiki, agreed that rising costs are affecting everyone in the sector and no-one is immune, but said travel is now a “necessity” not a luxury for young people.
“It is a rite of passage,” she told the conference.
“There will be hardships for lots of us but for [Contiki] next year looks to be a good year; it is building the way we would want it is – so far, so good from youth perspective.”
Hawke reiterated the message he had for the trade at Abta’s Travel Convention, by urging agents to focus on selling the more profitable escorted tours sector rather than basic beach holidays.
“With beach-and-flight, the commission is limited,” he said.
“With average selling prices being higher on escorted tours…it is better for agents.”
Young also said changes need to be made to the flexible terms and conditions introduced during the pandemic, to bring in more certainty for agents and operators.
• Speakers at a sustainability session during the conference urged travel firms to sign up to the Glasgow Declaration on Climate Action in Tourism.
The declaration was announced in the Scottish city in November 2021 as part of the Cop26 environmental summit.
Graeme Jackson, head of strategic partnerships at The Travel Foundation, said there are now more than 700 signatories, adding: “Cop27 is in Sharm el Sheikh next month; it is a really good opportunity for you to consider making that commitment.
“If we don’t sort the climate out, we are all in trouble.”
Ben Ittensohn, director of global sales Explore, which is one of the signatories, said: “Despite the pandemic we never lost sight of the importance of this. We decided to double down on sustainability.”
Pictured at the TourRadar conference, from left: Giles Hawke, Natasha Lawrence and Brian Young