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Holiday market could take years to recover
Wednesday September 1, 2010 - Email this article to a friend
Five years according to a survey just released by Mintel. Apart from the economic outlook there's increased VAT, higher fuel costs and more expensive flying.
According to Mintel, the amount of money spent will actually rise by 17 percent, but the rise will be driven by higher holiday costs.
These costs will limit growth.
Holidays - Attitudes and the Impact of the Recession - UK, suggests that if low-cost flights disappeared, those most likely to travel less would be the ABC1 pre-/no family group.
The two markets that would be most affected would be overseas city breaks and holiday homes.
The report claimed that last year travel agents and tour operators became noticeably more popular, rather than people doing it themselves over the internet.
This is certainly something we have observed here at PlanetSKI as more people take a package holiday with a tour operator.
In part because the price has come down with some hard bargaining by the ski companies and also because people are able to see the cost of everything up front.
That includes transfers, equipment hire, lift passes, food and often drink too with wine included in any holidays.
For an analysis on last winter and where we might be heading next seaosn see this PlanetSKI story.
Beach holidays dominate market
The report concluded: "In the coming years, while beach and family holidays will continue to dominate the market, more diversification will be seen in holiday types."
"Recovery is a not a word which can be applied to the holiday market in the coming five years," it warned.
"It seems that consumers have moved from being fearful to being doubtful and doubt, like fear, is not a strong foundation on which to make major purchase decisions," said Mintel research director, Richard Perks.
It also predicted that the use of social media, such as Twitter and Facebook,will increase, which will challenge traditional notions of brand authority and marketing.
Recently TUI, that owns the UK's largest ski tour operator, Crystal, along with First Choice and Thomson was downbeat too; see this PlanetSKI story.
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