Agents upbeat about July-September bookings
An online survey of leisure and business travel agents in the UK has found nearly two thirds are expecting a rise in bookings in the third quarter of 2006.
According to the snap shot online poll of 150 agents by Amadeus, 63.7% leisure agents and 63.9% travel management consultants were confident of an increase.
Of the leisure agents, 30.4% said they thought sales would rise by 10%, 18.8% predicted an increase of 5%, and 14.5% predicted a 20% jump.
Among business agents, 27.8% forecast sales would increase by 10%, 13.9% by 5%, and 22.2% by as much as 20%.
Only 7.2% of leisure agents and 11.1% of business agents surveyed expected to see a downturn in sales during quarter three.
The remaining agents expected no change in the volume of bookings.
Just over half (50.7%) of leisure agents said the World Cup had made no impact on the holidays they were booking, and 74.3% of TMCs said it was business as usual.
Elaine Seeto, director of marketing for Amadeus UK and Ireland, said: “It is good to see the majority of agents are confident bookings will increase from July to September. However, compared to the last snap poll results, agents predicted slightly stronger sales in quarter two compared to quarter three, with 70.1% leisure agents expecting an increase in bookings and 75.4% of business agents feeling sales were on the up.”
By Bev Fearis
Bev
Editor in chief Bev Fearis has been a travel journalist for 25 years. She started her career at Travel Weekly, where she became deputy news editor, before joining Business Traveller as deputy editor and launching the magazine’s website. She has also written travel features, news and expert comment for the Guardian, Observer, Times, Telegraph, Boundless and other consumer titles and was named one of the top 50 UK travel journalists by the Press Gazette.
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