NEWS YOU NEED TO KNOW 4


Fears easyJet and On the Beach may spark price battle


Ian Taylor ian.taylor@travelweekly.co.uk


 senir tre fire ers On the Beach and easyJet’s plans to ramp up holiday sales threaten a return to “the days of price wars”.


Advantage Travel Partnership


group commercial and membership director Paula Lacey warned: “There are going to be two, big new players. On the Beach has made clear it’s coming in with very aggressive targets and easyJet


Holidays is coming into the market in 2020.” Lacey told a Travel Weekly Business Breakfast in December: “Both have said they’re going to work with the trade. That is good from an independent point of view because we’ll have more choice. My fear is what it does to price. “Those who have been around a long time will remember the days of price wars. We don’t need that. The market-share game can be very short [but] you pay a high price for it.” EasyJet aims to relaunch easyJet


5 STORIES HOT


Holidays late in 2019 with former Tui product director Garry Wilson at its head. Wilson said in December: “We’re not going to be a niche player. We have 20 million customers who by a eire fit and o eewere for accommodation. That will be our primary target.” On the Beach has Atol cover


for 1.3 million holidays in the 12 months to March. But the online agent declared its intention to acce te fie iion orta beac oiday booed offine” after buying luxury operator Classic Collection Holidays in August. It promises a Classic Online


portal for agents to extend the operator’s product to “mainstream beach holidays”. Lacey said: “Their numbers


are big to start with. If it impacts on price, that is a problem for everybody. We will all pay the


price.”  Travel Weekly Business Breakfast, page 70


Left: Paula Lacey


5 Trade positive about start to 2019


Juliet Dennis juliet.dennis@travelweekly.co.uk


The trade has reported a positive start for 2019 bookings but shied away from predicting a record January.


Up to 5.2 million people are


predicted to book a holiday this month, with January 5 – dubbed ‘Sunshine Saturday’ – tipped to be one of the busiest days of the year. Inspiring Travel Company,


which has spent more than £100,000 on TV advertising and it firt ea caain ac for


agents, was among those to report a strong start to the year. Director of agency sales Lee Marshall said: “Long-haul sales picked up considerably in the days following Christmas and we’ve seen encouraging agent enquiries on the back of our TV ad.” Gold Medal and Pure Luxury


reported an increase in calls and bookings on New Year’s Eve, with New York, Las Vegas and Dubai the standout destinations. Simon Morgan, owner of Welsh agency chain Tailor Made Travel, said: “Enquiry levels are fantastic.  confident of ae rowt and


6travelweekly.co.uk3 January 2019 Spear Travels managing director


“Long-haul sales picked up in the days following Christmas”


my staff are trained on averting any reluctance to book due to Brexit.” Others forecast a late sales surge


as a result of Brexit fatigue. Prestige Holidays commercial


director David Skillicorn said sales were “fabulously unexciting”, adding: “I’m not disappointed but I’ve not got high expectations about January. By pay day, we could see a ‘sod it’ factor.”


Peter Cookson agreed: “We are not expecting any records to be broken in January to March. If it’s ‘no deal’, people will still book, as life is too short.” The Travel Village Group manag-


ing director Phil Nuttall said con- sumers were still booking despite Brexit considerations “for some”. The latest data from industry


analyst GfK saw summer 2019 bookings up 10% year on year to the end of November, and revenue up 11%. That followed a 5% year-on-year rise in summer 2018 bookings.


PICTURE: SARAH LUCY BROWN


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