No, not on clothes or beds or sofas. I’m talking about the holiday sales. At the moment airlines, hotels, travel agents and tour operators have them in abundance. But will they make us book?

First Choice and Thomson holidaymakers are to pay more for their vacations next year, owing to the rising costs of fuel and accommodation.

The announcement by the TUI group that, from next year, its First Choice brand would only sell all-inclusive holidays tells us a lot about the way overseas holidays are being seen by us, the holidaymaker. Why has TUI taken this decision? They say that, over the last 5 years, the demand for all-inclusive holidays has jumped by a third and that about two thirds of all holidays sold under the First Choice name will be all-inclusive holidays.

After yesterday’s fuel surcharge announcement by Thomas Cook comes a similar announcement from TUI, owners of Thomson and First Choice Holidays. I suppose it was only to be expected. The airlines have been increasing their surcharges and it was probably only a matter of time before those tour operators with their own airlines would soon follow.
So how much might this cost you?

I was quite surprised to find yesterday that the first local school had just broken up for Easter. In my mind it was still weeks away but in fact Good Friday is only 2 weeks tomorrow.
After the winter we have had it wouldn’t surprise any of us if bookings to the Spanish resorts and warmer areas was the main appeal but personal finances being what they are, some of us will think of taking no breaks at all. And for those that do go, there could be quite a few handicaps to going away. First there are the railways. The RMT union is considering scheduling a nationwide strike because of what it says are safety issues that may occur when Network Rail lays off staff. . You probably need to be an expert to know if safety was an issue. Needless to say, Network Rail says there is no problem and you have to wonder whether if safety was the issue, the union wouldn’t have called the strike as soon as it legally could. By striking at Easter, the cynical amongst us begin to wonder.

Whether you’re staycation-ing or vacationing, CD Traveller tells you what’s hot and what’s not in the travel world

Looking out of the window at the large dollop of snow that has fallen overnight, it is easy to think of warmer parts of the world and getting away from the cold and bleak view I see. Where to go is one issue but who I go with is another.
You could be forgiven for thinking, after seeing the Which? Holiday report on tour operators that you should avoid the big companies like Thomson, First Choice, Thomas Cook, Cosmos and Virgin because they haven’t done very well in the report.
You would be wrong.
This is not to say that the survey is wrong.

This is the time of the year when the new holiday brochures are being prepared to be sent out to shops so, that come the days after Christmas, we can pick and choose where we want to go. In truth that has changed quite a bit and some destinations and tour operators were taken aback by how late some of us booked this year. In some cases panic was almost about to set in at some places because they thought they would never be able to sell these holidays. Next year, they are assuming that a lot of us will book as late as we did this year.

Last night the winners were announced of the British Travel Awards. CD-Traveller is one of the sponsors because these are the only awards where you, the traveller and holidaymaker, can vote. So it’s not just the travel industry patting itself on the back. And over 100,000 of you voted so our thanks, and those of the organisers, for taking the time to vote.

Sites like TripAdvisor have been discussed before in these rumblings. The issues of small numbers for some hotels, biased reviews put up by the companies or their opponents themselves have all been considered.

Estimates vary on the number of people who are flying on a bank holiday break this weekend in addition to all the other flyers but it will be over 2 million. During the summer period maybe 15 million will have gone abroad.