Travel Agents are no help for cheap package holidays

Holiday News. After all the media reports that Package Holidays from leading travel agents were going to be reduced, In2town Travel Magazine have found the claims unfounded after two weeks of monitoring Cheap Package Holidays.

For months now the media have been claiming that travel agents who are struggling to sell Package Holidays would be reducing them to off load the estimated 60,000 unsold holidays they still had, giving families who have not been able to afford a holiday due to the present unstable economic climate a chance to enjoy a family abroad, this never happened.

For 2012 it looks no different, it seems that package holiday prices are going to stay high which means once again some families missing out on a holiday abroad. 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.

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.