Cheap Package Holidays From Travel Agents A Turn Off
Leading holiday firms are watching in amazement as they see their customer base dwindle due to the amount of holidaymakers now turning to the Internet to book their family holidays.
Travel Agents have been harping on about their profits not being as big as they were two years ago but they do not seem to be doing anything about it according to our travel expert, Diane Walker.
Diane Walker said: There has been lots of reports that travel agents will be reducing their package holiday prices but there is no sight of that happening yet and instead prices having staying put or even on occasions increasing in price, making it harder for families to have a holiday abroad.
It has been reported that leading travel agents have been stuck with over 60,000 holidays that they are unable to sell and according to a recent news story, travel firms will be having a huge sale, but there does not seem to be any difference in price with high street travel agents making us believe that this is just a marketing ploy to try and off load the thousands of unsold holidays at the same price they have been selling them all along.
After our research, we have found that instead of the holidays being reduced, we have found holidays with leading travel agents staying at the same price and in some respects increasing in price, which includes holidays to Lanzarote in October of this year.
Travel Agents have been complaining for some time now that they are finding it hard to compete against online travel agents and companies offering cheap flights, but even though they have seen a decrease in the number of holidays being sold, it seems the travel agents are sticking to their guns and hoping they can still offload these holidays without giving to much of a discount.
Holiday makers have now become wise and are avoiding the high street travel agent to book their holidays online, where they are finding if they book a separate flight online and book a hotel direct, they can save hundreds on the overall package price.
We have found by comparing 20 holidays being offered by leading travel agents for a family of four in destinations that include Benidorm, Lanzarote and Turkey, that on average we could save £820 by booking the holiday separate and this including luggage allowance and transfers meaning the high street travel agent really needs to understand they are no longer the only point of contact when it comes to a family booking a holiday.
We spoke to a travel advisor for one of the biggest High Street travel agents who said: I have noticed in our shop that we are not seeing the same faces that we see year in year out and I put this down to more people now using the internet to book their holiday. Even with my discount I have found that I can book holidays a lot cheaper on the Internet than what my company can offer and this does worry me.
She continued: With the large number of holidays being unsold and the huge decrease that I have seen with customers coming into our shop I am worried for the future of the High Street travel agent, unless we do something soon, I fear redundancies will be on the cards. We really need to start competing with online travel agents to get our customers back.
We asked 100 people how they have booked there holiday this year and we were not surprised by the result.
57% said they have booked their holiday online with online travel agents
30% said they booked their holiday with high street travel agents
10% said they have booked direct with British Holiday parks
3% said they could not afford a holiday this year with rising prices
Our survey shows that the trend for booking holidays online is increasing with more and more people looking to save money by booking separate flights and hotels, which in turn is bad news for the High Street Travel Agents.
Unfortunately it does not seem likely that the High Street travel agents are going to start competing any time soon, which means it is good news for online travel agents and online flights agents who are seeing an increase in profits with more people avoid the high street travel agents.
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