It Won't Be The Last

The news that another tour operator has gone bust doesn't come as anyway surprise, not that is much comfort to the 50,000 British holidaymakers who were looking forward to their fortnights in the sun. Holiday companies have always worked on the basis of high volume and low margins but some of those low margins in recent years have become no margins. Doing some research on the Interweb recently you could find a package in Paris, including Eurostar and four nights in a three-star hotel, for less than the price of your seat on the Eurostar if you booked just the train ticket on its own.

It has always been like this since package holidays became popular in the 1970's. I spent a fortnight in Majorca (the posh part by the way) in 1981 and the holiday (including return flights and half board) was less than the flight being sold on its own. I asked the Spanish hotel manager how he could afford to continue operating at what seemed to be a loss and he explained that in a reverse of what British based hotels did he made his money in the winter rather than in the summer.

Having had holiday companies as clients over the years I'm constantly surprised that there aren't only a handful of companies remaining standing. The time lag between you paying the balance on your holiday and the hotel receiving their cut of the deal can sometimes be more than three months, it's a perfect example of the little guys being squeezed until their pips squeak.

It's noticeable from my inbox that companies are into e-mail advertising more than ever, in the past three days I've had offers from an airline, shipping company and online booking agent. Brittany Ferries are currently offering members only deals at 35% below normal members prices and yet we are told that Europe isn't missing the Brits because the Germans are making up the shortfall on numbers, problem is that a German doesn't need to catch a ferry to France and whilst they might make up the numbers holidaying in France they can't make up the shortfall on numbers crossing the channel.