Thomas Cook and holidays

Alan French, CEO of now Chinese-owned Thomas Cook, has been on BBC Radio 4 speaking about the 2023 holiday season.

“It’s great to see the travel industry taking off again. We are seeing destinations open up, and people who hadn’t been able to travel for some time start looking again.
 
“Despite the macro-economic challenges, we are seeing, on a like-for-like basis, numbers that are almost double where they were last year. Favourites such as Spain, Greece and Turkey are doing well, but people are looking further afield to places such as North Africa. Take Morocco, for instance, where we are seeing bookings up fourfold, attracting both the high-end and the value-end of the market.

“Generally, holiday costs are up about 6% year-on-year. However, it’s difficult to say that definitively as the choice has got so much wider, and people are choosing from a much broader range of holidays this year than they could last year. But this year they can be confident they can get there and there aren’t going to be restrictions put on them. So, we are seeing people shopping around a lot and looking for a deal, of which there are many. If it turns out that the destinations they went to before the pandemic have gone up in price, then there are other holidays available to them, and those value options are becoming much more certain options – places such as Morocco and parts of Turkey, for instance.

“Some people are booking fairly last minute, and certainly more last minute than they were three years ago. It’s clear that people really value the quality of family time, and time with loved ones that they get when they go on holiday. So, whilst they may be looking for a deal, they are still planning on going on holiday this year.

“There’s an increase in the number of holidays being booked with people choosing shorter breaks, and those shorter breaks are now with family, which is a break from the past. We don’t think that this is a substitute for summer holidays; we think that customers are valuing time together, booking shorter breaks such as city breaks, and then will be looking closely for value for their summer holiday.

“We are confident for the rest of the year. It seems that most of the macro-economic challenges might be behind us, and I do think that the range of choices this year is greater than it’s ever been before, and there is plenty of value out there. After three years of not being able to travel, people really value the opportunity to be with the people they love in the places they love.”

www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m001l2j5

www.thomascook.com

Index/Home page
 

READERS' COMMENT

All comments are filtered to exclude any excesses but the Editor does not have to agree with what is being said. 200 words maximum

No one has commented yet, why don't you start the ball rolling?