The signs of an economic recovery are
everywhere. Apparently we are back where we were before the long recession
started.
Despite the need to keep borrowing, the
Chancellor is in a buoyant mood. Even the International monetary fund has
raised its estimate of UK growth from 2.8% to 3.2%.
Raised confidence generally leads to
increased spending and travel is one area that should benefit.
According to our National statistics, UK
residents took 58 million trips abroad in 2013 compared to 56 million the
previous year.
There’s still a way to go before the
pre-recession total of 69 million, but the signs are hopeful. Trips taken in
the first quarter of 2014 were 8.7% higher than in the first quarter of 2013.
And Heathrow coped with 6.6 million passengers in June, despite capacity
problems. Ryan Air have just revealed bumper profits and Easy Jet have
increased their capacity in Gatwick by 16%.
An area of concern is the tendency of
people to book late and the promotion of late discounted deals by price
comparison advertisers like Secret Escapes encourages this trend. Their ad
spend in the last twelve months hit £3 million. Other discounters like Hotel.com were active too. Even conventional
tour operators publicly advertise discounts where once they would be more
discreet.
Over capacity is one problem. Stay
vacations are another. The speed at which some countries switch from being
deemed safe to dangerous is also a factor. Egypt’s tourism business is still
suffering from the Arab spring revolution.
Perhaps tour operators should adopt the
discounting habits of some airlines who offer better deals to early bookers.
