Agents are hoping the first May bank holiday weekend will kick‑start late family bookings for the summer school holidays but admit some people may now have been “priced out” of the market.
The trade has continued to report brisk sales across the board for all seasons but said the lower end of the late family market remained sluggish as holiday prices hold firm for July and August.
The Advantage Travel Partnership chief commercial officer Kelly Cookes expressed her hopes for the May 4-6 bank holiday weekend, which follows soon after the traditional monthly payday.
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“I’m hopeful about this weekend but it’s also a case of waiting to see what happens with late availability and pricing over the next couple of weeks,” she said.
Cookes added: “I think a good portion of people are still waiting to see if they have got the amount they need to spend on a holiday.
“Bookings have definitely picked up since Easter but they are still slow at the lower end of the family market. It’s almost a tale of two halves: one group is booking way ahead and the other is booking last-minute.”
Conversions are tougher than earlier in the year due to price sensitivity among clients, said Cookes, who admitted: “I do wonder if we are pricing some people out if we don’t have huge amounts of the entry-level product to sell that we had three or four years ago.”
Seaside Travel is another agency hoping for a strong start to May sales this weekend following the launch of its annual lates campaign, The Great Seaside Getaway.
Brand manager Richard Lowrey-Heywood said the aim was to push all bookings – overseas and in the UK – over the next two months.
“Families are still waiting to book,” he said. “Hopefully this weekend will be the start, with more people thinking about booking for the summer.”
He said sales had been particularly strong in the past week, adding it “feels like peaks again”, but admitted there were “no deals under £200”.
Love to Travel owner Joanne Dooey said families were booking later this year. “They are putting money aside for a holiday but leaving it to three to four weeks before departure to book,” she said.
Sutton Travel managing director Andy Tomlinson stressed this meant families could no longer just pay a deposit. “We are now collecting balances for July and August, so people have to pay in full,” he said.
He reported slight price drops for May and June but “not a great deal of reduction in summer holiday prices”.
Henbury Travel managing director Richard Slater said more competition in the mass market could put pressure on Jet2holidays, adding: “Jet2 is certainly ramping up the message that we need to be selling summer 2024.”
Heidi Evans, Oasis Travel director, said easyJet’s recent Big Orange Sale had boosted sales with the operator.
“We are still really busy for lates and for next year,” she added.
In a trading update last week, Jet2 said summer 2024 bookings were showing a “modest increase” on the same period a year ago but added that recently “pricing has been more competitive, particularly for April and May departures”.