More late bookings indentified in long haul sector
Thursday, 22 May, 2009
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Hayes & Jarvis reports bookings up by more than 50% to countries that have experienced recent troubles such as Thailand and Sri Lanka.
But the biggest gains are coming from late bookings, with people taking advantage of heavy discounts on packages for travel within the next 12 weeks.
While sterling may have slid by more than 23% against the US dollar in the past year, the long haul operator claims that early transatlantic bookings have never been so buoyant.
Head of commercial Niel Alobaidi said the sluggishness of the forward booking market was a concern but this is beginning to come back as the economy shows signs of green shoots and confidence returns to the holiday market.
He said: “There has been a definite trend towards late bookings this year, with most long haul destinations significantly outperforming their sales for the past couple of years.
“Kenya stands out as the best seller – bouncing back well from the riots that damaged its tourism prospects in 2008 – but Sri Lanka and Thailand are also selling very strongly with sales up by more than 50 per cent in recent weeks.
“Of course the common denominator for these three destinations is that they are always competitive – but tactical discounting by hoteliers keen to attract business has helped to make them unbeatable value at the moment.”
Alobaidi pointed to the resilience of destinations like Thailand and Sri Lanka, which might have expected to suffer after they hit the headlines with anti-government protests and an escalation of the civil war with the Tamil Tigers.
“We did see a short term blip in bookings for Thailand but these bounced back very quickly to make it one of our best performing destinations and, like Sri Lanka, it has seen a boost to late bookings recently as customers look to switch from Mexico,” he said.
Talking about the US, he added: “People are booking really early to secure the best deals in the USA and this applies not just to New York but to Las Vegas and Orlando as well.
“Despite the lower exchange rate for the pound from this time last year, the US dollar still represents great value and clients appear determined to make those traditional pre-Christmas shopping breaks to New York.
“As a result we are almost 60% up year on year on winter bookings.”
by Phil Davies
Phil Davies
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