Agency consortium Advantage Travel Partnership hosted an Amadeus and Travel Weekly roundtable about the state of the market. By LEE HAYHURST
The panel
THE PANEL
Colin O’Neill, business development director, Advantage
Cristian Gleave, chief executive, Review Travel
Helen Tustin, general manager, Regal Travel
Jackie Steadman, director, TravelTime World
James Beagrie, managing director, Meon Valley Travel
Jimmy Martin, director, Jimmy Martin Travel
John Sullivan, head of commercial, Advantage
Julia Lo Bue-Said, managing director, Advantage
Ken McLeod, corporate director, Advantage
Nick Marks, director, Baldwins Travel
Steven Esom, non-executive chairman, Advantage. Also chairman of the British Retail Consortium and former Waitrose managing director
Consumers remained optimistic but cautious this year, concerned about the prospect of rising interest rates, and this had an impact on high street footfall. However, there were signs of optimism, with big spenders in older age brackets still buying holidays and the beginning of a re-emergence of self-catering suggesting renewed confidence. TravelTime World’s Jackie
Steadman said: “The high street was dead during May to September. Retailers were saying ‘where are the customers’?” “Bucking the trend of cautious optimism is the 60 and above age profile – there are some seriously big bookings flying about.” James Beagrie of Meon
Valley Travel said holidays were
competing with other significant areas of expenditure. He said: “Travel now competes with buying a home or a car. The recession has gone so we’re back in the old game of kill or be killed, survival of the fittest. If people buy a car they’re not going to buy a holiday.”
Consumer confidence Steven Esom, chairman of the British Retail Consortium (BRC), agreed, saying John Lewis trading showed consumers were back buying household goods. He said BRC figures underlined the high street slowdown in 2014. Nick Marks of Baldwins Travel said: “We saw more people taking more holidays so passenger numbers are up but they are spreading their spend across the year.
“The peak trading period has got longer. For the last four years, it’s started in the second week in January and carried on through February and now into March.” Advantage did see some
Steven Esom, Advantage and BRC
12 •
travelweekly.co.uk — 11 Decemer 2014
regional variance, with agents in Scotland seeing particular disruption caused by the independence referendum and the Commonwealth Games. Jimmy Martin Travel’s Jimmy Martin said there was a lull in May and June but demand took off after that, although he said he felt
the impact of discounting from operators such as Jet2holidays. “Commonwealth Games
volunteers were given extra money and time off and in September the market was there,” he said. John Sullivan of Advantage said the threat of a rise in interest rates had had an impact earlier this year, but confidence had been boosted more recently by a belief that a rise was not imminent, allied to pension reform next year. Advantage’s Julia Lo Bue-Said believed customers were weighing
2014 trading: UK’s su
Advantage’s John Sullivan summed up 2014 at the event: It’s been an interesting year. Last year saw a
resurgence in the mass market and we were all a bit more optimistic than we should have been. January sales weren’t too bad and it crawled along quite nicely. Business was really good until the summer, then the sun came and the focus was on staying in the UK. Events like the World Cup played a part too. There was more capacity and
operators were lowering prices. That makes our life difficult because customers see cheap prices and expect them all season.
AMADEUS ROUND-TABLE
How’s the market been this year?
PICTURES:MATT SPRAKE
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