Forget the headlines, peak season pricing won’t change – TravelMole Comment by Jeremy Skidmore

If you believe some recent press reports, travel industry bosses have had their knuckles severely rapped and are about to be forced to give families a better deal.

It all started with an article in the London Evening Standard, headlined ‘Inquiry into why holiday prices soar when schools break up’.

The next day sister paper Daily Mail’s front page screamed: ‘Stop the School Holiday Rip-offs’. Various other papers also followed it up.

They weren’t exactly inaccurate, but there was a healthy dose of spin involved (damn journalists, eh).

In fact, consumer affairs minister Gerry Sutcliffe had expressed concerns about peak season pricing at a meeting with industry leaders in the spring. The story resurfaced after Standard was given a private briefing on the issue.

There’s little sympathy among the travelling public for the difficulties tour operators encounter when pricing their programmes.

They’ve encouraged a late booking trend by promising great deals for those who book early, only to virtually give away unsold holidays at the last minute.

And paying top dollar for packages during school holidays is understandably galling for those with families.

I haven’t got children, so often go away in May or early June. I can’t imagine anything worse than a Mediterranean beach holiday in August.

It’s bad enough looking at the brochure, where prices often double for peak holidays, but the reality is much worse. In truth, the price differential is far greater because there are so many heavy discounts in the shoulder period.

If you do go away in August, you have to brace yourself for delays due to the sheer volume of people and the inevitable strikes by airport workers or air traffic controllers, who know that the best way to state their case is to cause travel chaos in summer (look out for baggage handlers and check-in staff walking out in late July after their union, the GMB, rejected a 2.5 per cent pay offer).

On top of that, peak season in the Mediterranean is unbearably hot and you have to fight for a corner of the beach or lounger by the pool.  It’s undoubtedly the best time to stay at home and enjoy the British summer.

But all that won’t stop travel companies from selling out in July and August (although there are so many packages available this year, they may struggle).

And, with the simple laws of supply and demand, prices are bound to rise during popular periods.

They have to – without the hike, most companies would not make their thin margins and would continually operate at a loss.

Travel companies will try to placate the Government with the odd local authority scheme offering small discounts for loyal customers during the summer.

But there’s no chance of the pricing structure changing and, legally, the Department of Trade and Industry has no power to enforce it in a free market economy.

The Office of Fair Trading has already investigated the industry, concluding it is very competitive and stated there is no case to answer.

Ironically, if tour operators got together and decided to collectively lower prices in peak season – about as likely as David Beckham turning down a lucrative sponsorship opportunity – the collusion would be anti-competitive and could, in theory, spark an OFT investigation, although no consumer in history has yet complained of falling prices.

If at all possible, try to get away before mid-July!