CONFERENCE Jet2holidays 2022 VIP Conference:Operator hosts 350 trade
Heapy warns sales will ‘get tougher’ as holiday costs rise
S
teve Heapy slammed the Bank of England’s decision to raise interest rates to 3%, saying the travel
industry would suffer as a result. The chief executive of
Jet2.com
and Jet2holidays warned the impact will push the country into a recession and leave people with less disposable income to spend on holidays. “I don’t agree with the action
the Bank of England is taking and I can see interest rates being pushed up even further, which means people will have to pay more on their mortgage and will spend less elsewhere,” he said. “Things are going to get tougher.” He warned inflation would push
holidays prices up as supply chain costs increase. “We are sellers of the end of the
holiday product and there are lots of people in the supply chain until it reaches us,” he added. “Costs are going up all the way
through the chain, so we are seeing our
agent partners having to sell an end product that has gone up a lot in price.” Heapy urged the trade not to
gamble on having a strong January as the industry continues to face uncertainty following the pandemic. He encouraged agencies to bring
forward their booking curve instead of waiting for the peaks season and said it would be “foolish” to assume January 2023 would be typical. Heapy cited the war in Ukraine,
the cost-of-living crisis and last week’s explosion in Poland as reasons
for global uncertainty that may impact the peak selling season. “As a business, we don’t like to
gamble or take too many risks and we are not gambling on getting a normal January,” he warned. “The last three years have been as
far from normal as you can get and it would be foolish to assume January can be normal. “We are living in an unstable and
uncertain world in many respects and I’m not assuming we’re getting back to normality any time soon.”
‘We want to work with trade partners, not compete with them’
Jet2holidays will never open its own travel agency as it is dedicated to supporting its trade and hotel partners, according to Steve Heapy. He confirmed the company would remain a tour
operator and an airline and said he wanted to “concentrate on what we’re good at”. “We want to work with our
independent travel agents and hotel partners and we don’t want to compete with them,” he said. “We let our hotel partners have
their brand and concept, which might be moulded by the owner into exactly what they want, so who are
10 24 NOVEMBER 2022
Steve Heapy
we to tell them to change it? The same goes for agencies.” He went on to say he dislikes travel retailers that
sell only one tour operator as they do not offer a wide enough range to customers. “If you’re only selling one tour operator, then you’re offering a narrow range and you can’t say you’re giving customers the best experience,” he said. “But if you go into a local travel
agents, they have a whole range of tour operators that they sell. “Obviously, we want customers
to buy Jet2 products, but it’s important agents have the range.”
Jet2holidays aims to rev
Jet2holidays plans to bring back its resort flight check-in service from May 2023. The option allows holidaymakers to
check in their bags at the hotel on their day of departure, leaving them luggage-free for the rest of the day and at the airport. Prior to the pandemic, the service
was offered in 10 destinations, but it was suspended in 2020 as the company was unsure when Covid travel restrictions would be lifted. Heapy told Travel Weekly the service
would be brought back due to its “popularity” with both customers and
Steve Heapy
Seaside Travel celebrates a ‘Top Seller’ award from Jet2holidays
travelweekly.co.uk
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