On looking at 2014 and beyond Photi added: “All the benchmarking surveys say that we want to travel more, it has got to now filter down to the marketplace.”


And on the acquisition side, things


are looking good for the industry, Photi said. “We have had an amazing amount of acquisition activity in the past 12 months and we are working on one or two more acquisitions now,” he added.


Bourne Leisure’s Allan Lambert tellsTTG’s Daniel Pearce “people are rediscovering Britain”


will be a significant devaluation in the drachma but in the longer-term view tourism will boom. People will definitely select Greece for their holidays,” he said. Chris Photi, senior partner at Whiteheart Associates, agreed on Greece’s attractiveness for value of money. “Greece looks like tremendous value for money but do you want to holiday in a civil war?” he asked. On a more positive note Pickett said the Deloitte Consumer tracker index showed that 20% of people still say that their annual holiday is


The business travel perspective Business travel sales are up 9% at Advantage year-on-year, as “the corporate world is travelling in order to stimulate the economy” said chief executive John McEwan (pictured). Adam Murray, group financial


director at Flight Centre, agreed that business travellers were continuing to travel, but were also demanding more from their TMC. “Customers are becoming more educated and the economic environment means we are having to deliver tangible savings,” he said.


their most important spend of the year. He said there was evidence that luxury travel continues to grow, with Google searches for luxury holidays on the up, and this was an area which travel agents can exploit. “There is a place for the specialist


travel agent as opposed to the pure online side,” he said, explaining the research showed that 90% of consumers use the internet to search for domestic holidays and 86% use it to search overseas holidays, and Deloitte believes the remainder in each case is the luxury market who seek a more personal approach.


In the past 12 months he cited the


trends towards global tendering, which meant TMCs needed a true global offering, and increasing demand for online tools to view travel patterns and data. “People are clearly wanting to


transact more online in the corporate space,” he said.


Going forward


the group is clear in its growth plans, aiming for £1 billion by 2014 and “50% up on that by 2017”, said Murray.


The domestic perspective Bourne Leisure head of retail sales Allan Lambert said sales so far in 2012 had proven that the rise in domestic tourism was much more than a myth. Lambert said Bourne’s Butlins, Haven and Warners brands were all performing strongly, with bookings up and all the key holiday periods ahead of 2011. “Where people were spending


£2,000 on a family holiday, now they are spending £1,000, and it’s easier to do that in the UK. People still want to travel, and what may have been seen as a compromise in the past is becoming the norm. “People are rediscovering Britain and we have a lot to celebrate - the sense of pride is coming back. Bourne has had five really strong years - and we are reinvesting so the benefits will continue to be felt for the next five years. “Looking ahead I can see the


bigger businesses divesting themselves of more of their portfolios, and more of the independent operators consolidating. For the independents to get economies of scale they may need to merge or acquire. “For the larger businesses, sometimes it’s better to divest some of that business to someone who can put


The consortium perspective Advantage is anticipating a “very strong late end to the season from August onwards,” said John McEwan, Advantage chief executive.


He said he believed there would be a lot of pent up demand by the end of summer and that the pound was continuing to strengthen against the euro which could also help sales. Destination-wise Portugal and the Balearics were performing well, and Turkey was bouncing back, he said. Long-haul, besides Florida, was struggling which McEwan attributed to “fuel increases and APD”.


in the time to focus on what’s important. I can see people making smart moves to break themselves into new marketplaces, like Cox & Kings taking over Holidaybreak. “It’s an exciting time, and the focus is on the banks. I believe they are becoming more fluid, which will enable businesses to make the decisions that they’ve not been able to make for some time.”


For more from the Barclays Travel Forum, visit ttgdigital.com


■The Barclays Travel Forum took place on Tuesday May 22 at the Royal Geographical Society in London, and was attended by 300 delegates


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