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Nigel Coombs reflects on the
crisis within the travel industry after the terrorist attacks
in America, and offers his travel tips for the best buys this
season.
 Travel
bookings have fallen by 30 per cent since the September 11th
bombings in America and travel companies have responded to
this huge loss of business in one of two very different ways.
Old-fashioned re-trenchers have
gone back into their bunkers: they have put up their prices
and added extra security charges making both holidays and
flights less affordable. But the more go-ahead companies have
brought their prices down in an attempt to win back the one
million Britons who have cancelled or postponed their travel
plans.
Low cost airlines like "Easyjet",
"Go"
and "Ryanair"
have slashed fares: Munich , Bilbao and Milan are all now
£40 and fares to holiday destinations like Barcelona
and Faro start at about £50 return. Some holidays are
cheaper as well. The latest offers from Travelscene are typical.
They have cut the cost of winter City Breaks by nearly half:
Rome is down from £356 to £199 and even up-market
Kirker Holidays
have reduced some of their rates by a quarter.
 Here
are some of the deals that have caught my eye: If you want
a short holiday, a quick trip over to France at this time
of year is a good idea. Unijet
is offering two nights in two star bed and breakfast accommodation
at £129 per person.
But remember that Spain is still
warm at this time of year: Airtours
have got 7 night self-catering holidays on the Costa Del Sol
for £89 per person and that includes the flights from
Gatwick. Unijet are also
flying from Gatwick, they are offering three star bed and
breakfast accommodation in the centre of Madrid with prices
starting from £130 per person. Also, a company called
"bargainholidays.com"
are offering 7 nights half board at three star accommodation
in Majorca starting at £209 per person.
If you want to go to the USA
then there are some very good deals there, as you would expect.
Unijet will fly you to
Los Angles for £371 and another company called America
Direct are flying to Las Vegas for £399. And if you
want to go to San Francisco, there are some 3 star bargains
there, again with Unijet,
starting at £362. All of these prices are lower than
they were last year.
 However,
if you want to go skiing, there aren't the same deals around.
We are still booking ski holidays in the same way that we
have done in the past. I suppose we assume that nothing is
going to happen to us on the slopes and so we are still going
skiing.
There are some good deals around:
Snowcoach have a
ten day offer to France for £218 which is about the
cheapest that I've come across - and Club
Pavilion have 7 night breaks to Soldeu El Tarten in Andorra
from £349 per person. But on the whole I don't think
you'll find too many ski bargains. We are also going skiing
in the United States as well, so my advice is to book now
because you won't find prices coming down in this area at
all.
For people who weren't planning
to go abroad and are staying in the UK, do remember that the
Foot and Mouth crisis is now pretty much over. The other thing
is that over the winter there's plenty of low-priced accommodation
available all over the country. Have a look in the back of
the newspapers and you'll see cottages and holiday lets from
Devon right the way through to Scotland, charging very low
prices indeed - one week  for
less than a hundred pounds is not uncommon at all. There are
some particularly good deals in Wales and the Cotswolds this
year.
Among the interesting things
that have caught my eye in the UK, is Stoke-on-Trent's newest
attraction, which opened to the public convenience on October
6th. That's The
Gladstone Pottery Museum's eagerly awaited tribute to
the toilet - "Flushed With Pride" - the largest
part of the attraction concentrates on bathrooms, urinals,
latrines, water closets and toilets - all of which serve as
another reminder of the value of the pottery industry.
In general, holiday prices could
increase by as much as £60 per family next year. The
tour companies have just asked the government to drop legislation
limiting surcharges which could allow them to pass on increased
costs following the September 11th suicide attacks. Under
current legislation, tour operators are forced to absorb the
initial two per cent of any increased costs before they are
allowed to impose surcharges. But since September 11th, holiday
companies have  been
absorbing bigger operational and security costs, which, they
say, are greater than their profit margins and are forcing
them into the red.
What is clear is that travel
industry will be smaller in 2002. Many of the routes that
we are used to flying will be closed, services will be cut,
holiday destinations will be dropped, prices will be different,
and the people working for the travel companies will also
be different. Furthermore, we should expect travel agencies
to close and some tour operators and airlines to go into liquidation.
So in the year 2002 we are going to find a completely different
travel business and we will have to buy different kind of
packages from the ones that we were buying this year.
The challenge is to re-structure
the industry in the new post September 11th world. On that
day, everything changed and we now have the very real job
of putting the whole business back together so that the industry
can look forward, and move forward positively into 2003. We
need to look ahead.
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