The largest tour operators have launched a last-ditch effort to promote sales before the start of the summer holidays, as there is wide availability but also high prices.
After England’s defeat in the Euro final, TUI, easyJet and Jet2holidays advertised last-minute offers.
Jet2holidays, which is offering a £60 discount on all summer holidays booked through a business partner, has also announced a new WhatsApp community exclusively for agents with news, marketing content and a “deal of the day”.
Alan Cross, head of travel agency relations at Jet2holidays, said: “Football is over and the weather is bleak. We are doing everything we can to take advantage of this demand.”
The TUI website says: “He’s not coming home, so why not leave?” While easyJet is promoting a “summer price drop” with a discount of up to £120 for two adults and two children sharing one room on 3,000 holidays across all destinations until September 30.
Travel agents gave mixed trade reports. Triangle Travel general manager Sarah Kenton warned that only “significantly lower prices” could generate a “strong rise in recent days” after a “difficult” July, with sales at just 35% of July 2023.
“Prices remain too high for customer budgets. Providers are not doing enough discounts, despite the great availability,” she added.
Abbie Heaton, director of Blue Bay Travel Personal Travel Consultants, said half of this week’s transactions were in the summer, compared with the usual one-third in similar trading periods. “Consumers are inevitably looking for low prices and this trend is supported by the promotions and additional capacity offered by tour operators,” she said.
Travel Circle director David Cookson attributed the late increase in sales to “terrible summer weather in the UK”, adding: “There’s still plenty of availability for the summer. I feel that the big tour operators are overcommitted.”
Sunlounger Travel branch manager Courtney Bunton said Monday and Tuesday of this week sold the same volume of holidays as the first 10 days of July. “People feel down after football. They want to escape to the sun,” she said.
August departures captured The Advantage Travel Partnership’s largest share of last week’s sales. But head of commercial John Sullivan added: “Availability is there, but not at any cost.”
