news caribbean survey
APD may be hitting trade to the Caribbean hard – but it is not denting agents’ optimism for the year ahead, as a recent survey on
ttglive.com found out. Daniel Pearce reports
Agents have faith in the Caribbean A
mid the doom and gloom over the latest hike in Air Passenger Duty and grave concerns from UK operators about sales over the next 12 months,
travel agents could be forgiven for thinking about giving the Caribbean less attention in the months to come. Sandals chief executive Adam Stewart said at
World Travel Market last week that APD, which increased again on November 1, could have a serious effect on a Caribbean which has become “over-reliant” on tourism. And search engine
Cheapflights.co.uk recently claimed searches for the eight most popular destinations in the Caribbean fell by more than 10% over the 12 months to the end of September 2010, as a result of APD rises. With the Caribbean such big business for UK agents – accounting for more than a quarter of sales for six out of 10 of them according to TTG research – is it time for the trade to think again about putting so much focus on the destination? Don’t believe it for a minute! As TTGreaders told us in our survey for the Caribbean Tourism Organisation’s recent European Marketing Forum, they are more optimistic than ever.
Vital statistics Our poll of travel agents over the two and a half weeks prior to WTM asked for their views on sales to the Caribbean – and close to 300 agents responded, giving us a full snapshot of the trade’s attitudes to the destination in 2010. Far from being put off by the latest rise in APD, only a tiny proportion (4%) believe their sales to the destination will fall over the next year. More than half (53%) said they believed sales
■The TTG Caribbean survey ran on
ttglive.com from October 19 to November 5, 2010. There were 292 respondents, including 79% travel agents, 9% tour operators and 2% travel suppliers.
12 19.11.2010
would rise, while 43% said they believed they would stay the same. It is a powerful statistic from agents who talk to customers every day of the week and have a genuine impression of where sales are going to go next year.
Agents still want more support from suppliers to hit their targets though, with 77% citing fam trips as a key tool to help them make more sales, and 55% asking for extra destination training. Just over 40% said a cut in APD would be key in helping them increase sales to the Caribbean, suggesting the majority is moving on for now and looking at other drivers to grow sales. Among the specific support called for from suppliers and tourist boards, agents asked for everything from “more point of sale for shop windows” to “affordable deals to reassure customers they can afford the Caribbean”.
Value reigns supreme Importantly, agents still believe customers view the Caribbean as a good value destination, even when weighing up the cost of APD. Three out of four agents (75%) said they felt customers viewed the destination as good value, while 77% said they felt it displayed better all-round value than it did last year Yet they still believed that it was value that was most likely to lead customers to other destinations (see panel) – surely no surprise in these challenging times. It is clear that UK agents have strong feelings for the Caribbean, but it is also clear there are
In association with
ttglive.com
What do you think will happen to your Caribbean sales in the next year?
Increase 53% Decrease 4%
Stay largely the same
010 20 30 43% 40 50
What types of Caribbean holiday do you sell?
Twin or multi-centre Single centre
Coach/escorting touring
Fully inclusive tour packages
Tailor-made holidays with scheduled flights
62% 4% 0%
16% 18%
010 20 30 40 50
Who are your most common Caribbean customers?
26% 9% 1% 58% 6% 60 70 80 60
Young couples Families
Middle-aged couples Groups of friends Grey market
plenty of reasons for suppliers to continue to have strong feelings for agents when it comes to the destination, as long as they can offer them the right support to grow their sales in these challenging times.
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