Summer’s Gone, Winter Starts
In the travel industry there are only two seasons, summer and winter. Summer ends at the end of October. No figures have come out yet showing what we did this summer but there are some hints.
We didn’t go abroad as much as we did the year before. Maybe the numbers dropped by between 15 and 20%. Europe and North America would have been the worst hit since their currencies were strong and there was less discounting on hotel prices. Unlike Turkey where flexibility and keen pricing will have prompted many more of us to go there. Egypt has done well as the combination of sun and beach (Sharm and Hurghada for example) and culture (Luxor and Cairo) will have attracted two different types of people.
You might be surprised that far flung places have done well but airfares and holiday packages to places like Thailand were good value in comparison. And the Thai government helped their tourism industry enormously after the demonstrations earlier in the year. Malaysia and Vietnam attracted more of us than before as well.
But although other places took the headlines, Spain was still the most popular destination although the number of us visiting there will be down. And as everyone said, a lot of us holidayed at home. The word “staycation” entered our vocabulary and visits to local attractions jumped.
The trend seems to have continued into half term as well. And as for winter? Who knows. The one thing we travellers have taught the industry this year is that we will book later and we will keep our holidays even though we might have to cut back elsewhere. So they will promote to us for longer and bargains will continue for a bit longer yet.
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