NEWS 1


Antalya: Turkey summer bookings are up by almost 50% year on year


YOU NEED TO KNOW


How are the January peaks for you?


Amanda Matthews, Designer Travel: “It’s been a tough January. There are lots of enquiries but people are taking longer to make a decision. We’re only a little bit up year on year and it’s a case of fighting for every booking.”


BREXIT


Sales slump in wake of cancelled-flights stories


Ian Taylor ian.taylor@travelweekly.co.uk


Summer 2019 bookings fell sharply last week following a spate of media stories warning of aneed hoida fights or passports being rendered invalid post-Brexit.


Yet season-to-date bookings for the summer remain 4% up year on year and were even running ahead of last January in the days before the media blast on Monday and Tuesday of last week. Analyst GfK reported summer


2019 bookings in the week to January 19 up 1% year on year and the season-to-date total up 5% at the close of that week. Bookings on January 21, dubbed ‘Blue Monday’ as supposedly the most-depressing


day of the year, were up 5% year on year for this summer. But sales crashed from Tuesday


last week, with GfK reporting the week’s bookings down 9% year on year by Saturday January 26. The fall followed one consumer


media report after another suggesting that up to five million flights could e cancelled in the event of a no-deal Brexit. The story was based on a statement by airline association Iata almost a week earlier warning that a proposed EU cap on UK airlines’ existing capacity on routes to Europe might lead to cancelled flights Three days later the national media picked up on a government warning to travellers to check passports are sufficiently up to date


for EU travel if there is no deal. The Express reported “3.5m passports


4travelweekly.co.uk31 January 2019


“Sunday and Monday were strong, but [the market] dropped off a cliff through the week”


could e A after rexit The damage was immediate. GfK senior client insight director David Hope said: “Sunday and Monday [last week] were strong, but [the market] dropped off a cliff and declined through the eek Yet continual negative reports and heightened uncertainty appear not to have fully dented the overall market. Summer 2019 bookings


remained 4% up year on year going into this week and bookings for the current winter season up 5%. Revenue for the summer


Don Bircham, Hays North West: “We anticipated margins would go down, especially with Thomas Cook dropping price parity, but they seem broadly in line with last year.” He reported a 16% rise in revenue year on year and bookings up £100 in value.


Paul Waters, Premier Travel: “Converting enquiries into bookings has been tougher than last January.”


Rad Sofronijevic, Midcounties Cooperative Travel: “It slowed down towards the end of last week and the expected boost of pay day didn’t transpire.”


season to date was 1% up year on year and for the current winter aout flat However, the comparison is


with an unprecedentedly strong January last year. Summer 2018 bookings were up 8% year on year in the week to January 13, 2018, 8% in the week to January 20 and 11% in the week to January 27. Hope reported family and all-inclusive bookings driving the current market, with Turkey and North Africa especially strong. Family bookings for summer


2019 remained 7% up year on year for the season to the end of last week and all-inclusive bookings up 10%. Season-to-date summer bookings


were up by almost half year on year to Turkey and by two-thirds to North Africa, including Tunisia.


PICTURE: SHUTTERSTOCK


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32  |  Page 33  |  Page 34  |  Page 35  |  Page 36  |  Page 37  |  Page 38  |  Page 39  |  Page 40  |  Page 41  |  Page 42  |  Page 43  |  Page 44  |  Page 45  |  Page 46  |  Page 47  |  Page 48  |  Page 49  |  Page 50  |  Page 51  |  Page 52  |  Page 53  |  Page 54  |  Page 55  |  Page 56  |  Page 57  |  Page 58  |  Page 59  |  Page 60  |  Page 61  |  Page 62  |  Page 63  |  Page 64  |  Page 65  |  Page 66  |  Page 67  |  Page 68  |  Page 69  |  Page 70  |  Page 71  |  Page 72  |  Page 73  |  Page 74  |  Page 75  |  Page 76  |  Page 77  |  Page 78  |  Page 79  |  Page 80  |  Page 81  |  Page 82  |  Page 83  |  Page 84  |  Page 85  |  Page 86  |  Page 87  |  Page 88  |  Page 89  |  Page 90  |  Page 91  |  Page 92  |  Page 93  |  Page 94  |  Page 95  |  Page 96  |  Page 97  |  Page 98  |  Page 99  |  Page 100  |  Page 101  |  Page 102  |  Page 103  |  Page 104  |  Page 105  |  Page 106  |  Page 107  |  Page 108  |  Page 109  |  Page 110  |  Page 111  |  Page 112  |  Page 113  |  Page 114  |  Page 115  |  Page 116  |  Page 117  |  Page 118  |  Page 119  |  Page 120  |  Page 121  |  Page 122