the days of cheap flights and holidays are over

geoffky

Well we hammered them while it lasted as the last ten years have been exceptional in terms of cost. i think those days are now shortly to be over and we will return to the times when holidays were a bit of a luxury....lets hope i am wrong but i doubt it..

Marty_J

Any reason in particular?

philng

I would agree-there is less and less competition-With the 4 main tour operators now combined in to 2 (which should never have been allowed) they can now more or less charge what they want & they have proved this in the last 24 hours with 50% increase in prices since XL despise.

loates123

50% really?

firework

i hope you are wrong but agree about the mergers. once over i could check airtours, mytravel, thomas cook etc and get a variety of prices and places - been checking them lately and all prices are exactly the same. finding a similar situation with thomson & portland and was just pondering the monopolies situation and wondering how this has been allowed to happen. i notice also a distinct lack of discount codes and deals floating around at the minute. you'd think they would be trying to tempt people in - but - oh, no ... they are taking the other tack and relying on our despair at the state of the nation knowing full well that those of us who can just about afford to escape it for a week will do so even if it means breaking the bank, ebaying all our kids toys or living on beans for a month.

can you tell i'm looking for a cheap week away and feeling the strain?!! lol!

ynot2005

well there will be certainly plenty of expensive holidays not taken in the next year

i had posted what the bookies thought would be the next airline casualty, unfortunately the forum admin would rather we be unaware of that.

strange really on a website that encourages us to get accounts with bookmakers

nowt as queer as folk

chuckley

the cheapest i found was £152 for 2 weeks from gatwick to rhodes on august 23rd this year via olympic holidays.

i dont see how the cheap packages have gone...

Tojo_Ralph

ynot2005 wrote: »

well there will be certainly plenty of expensive holidays not taken in the next year

i had posted what the bookies thought would be the next airline casualty, unfortunately the forum admin would rather we be unaware of that.

strange really on a website that encourages us to get accounts with bookmakers

nowt as queer as folk

Your thread being pulled further highlights the arbitrary way in which these boards are edited these days. :rolleyes:

That said, perhaps Martin has an "Airlines Going Bust... We Tell You Who Is Likely To Be Next" article in the making and you were stealing his thunder.

geoffky

chuckley .try again in 8 or 9 months after another expected twenty airlines have gone bust

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/4a2aef1c-3f16-11...?nclick_check=1


Storm clouds gather over UK travel industry

By Roger Blitz, Leisure Industries Correspondent

Published: June 21 2008 04:54 | Last updated: June 21 2008 04:54

British holidaymakers, be warned: soak up the rays, sleep in longer and make the most of your summer holiday. It may be the last you have for a while.

If there is one industry that feels most keenly this week’s forecast of storm clouds ahead from Mervyn King, the Bank of England governor, it is the UK travel sector.

Tour operators, theme parks, hotels and weekend break destinations have thus far successfully ridden the wave of uncertainty caused by inflation, oil price rises and market turmoil.

The reason? The British public made sure to book its holidays early – months before Mr King’s portent of doom from Mansion House. Such was the rush for bookings at the start of the year that Thomas Cook and Tui Travel, the big two tour operators, have reported far fewer unsold holidays than usual.

“The late discount market is not there,” said Christopher Rodrigues, chairman of VisitBritain, the government’s tourism agency. “The market is reasonably well committed now.”

But the outlook for the travel market is decidedly uncomfortable. Up until now, evidence of the resilience of the holidaymaker has kept the industry cautiously optimistic. The tour operators have been happy to report that far from being discretionary, the holiday is the “must-have” item in the family budget.

Will that be the case next year? Asked to describe the mood across the industry, Mr Rodrigues laughed. “Some fingernails are beginning to look like the prime minister’s,” he said.

He added: “Anyone with any experience says it’s not going to be an easy 24 months. The overall mood and the reality of food price inflation means that next year will be tougher.

ynot2005

spot on tojo ralph, we might even see martin joking about the bookies in his cheeky chappie style on the telly

anyway the serious matter is that SKY EUROPE attracted a lot of betting money, and thats no joke, odds tumbling like that within such a short time is something i would want to be aware of if i had a holiday, being prepared is what counts.

head in the sand and pretend nothings happening censorship is helping no-one

Tojo_Ralph

ynot2005 wrote: »

spot on tojo ralph, we might even see martin joking about the bookies in his cheeky chappie style on the telly.

To be fair to Martin, with his various interests elsewhere, I don't think he has much input or control over the content of the forum.