Tour firms knock off 75% as 1.5 million holidays unsold

News at Heathrow 16/08/2010

IT investment boosts baggage handling at Heathrow : 2010 : Heathrow slams price comparison as ‘misleading’

The UK’s travel giants are knocking down prices in a bid to clear inventory.

Tui Travel, the biggest travel agency in the UK, needs to shift 650,000 unsold travel packages and flights by the end of this year. The company, which owns both Thomson and First Choice, yesterday revealed the shocking weakness in the UK’s travel industry. The UK’s second-largest travel firm, Thomas Cook, revealed that it has 166,000 unsold breaks to clear. As a result of the glut of unsold travel breaks, holidaymakers can now score a week-long holiday on the Mediterranean for as low as £131 per person.

Huge travel disruption earlier this year caused by industrial disputes and the volcanic ash cloud has combined with a generally weak economic climate and poor consumer sentiment to produce a horrific year so far for UK travel companies. Many British families have this year decided to stay at home, either enjoying ‘staycations’ at destinations in the UK or foregoing big holiday breaks this year altogether.

The hot weather in June and July led even more Brits to stay home as large numbers also chose to avoid holidays during coverage of the World Cup in South Africa. Travel pricing comparison site Travel Supermarket’s Bob Atkinson said the UK’s travel industry has already knocked some 40 per cent off the prices of holidays. He is forecasting reductions of at least 70 per cent by the end of August.

IT investment boosts baggage handling at Heathrow : 2010 : Heathrow slams price comparison as ‘misleading’

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