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Cheap Egypt Holidays > Travel News > TUI Travel Says British Leisure Travellers Are Upgrading their Holiday plans
TUI Travel Says British Leisure Travellers Are Upgrading their Holiday plans | | 6th August 2008 |
Peter Long, CEO of Europe's biggest travel firm, TUI Travel has reported that British leisure travellers are upgrading their holiday plans in an effort to escape the miseries brought on by economic downturn.
Long said average selling prices to customers in the UK have risen 13 percent compared to last year, with the increase due not just to higher prices, but to customers trading up to bigger holidays.
"It's not all cost (increases). It's a mixture, with customers trading up, which is a positive trend. We're seeing strong demand to medium-haul destinations like Egypt.
"Every day you read comments about a recession, and it's depressing for people. The main holiday is something people need because they need to recharge their batteries even more."
Long said that the majority of TUI Travel's customers are not dependent on borrowing as they save throughout the year for their annual holidays.
"Our customer base is good, hard-working people from 'middle England'. They work hard, save, put money away each month, and they say, 'We're going to go on holiday'," he said.
Long also said he remains confident that recent consolidation talks with Lufthansa over a Lufthansa's Germanwings airline and TUI's TUIfly merger will reach a successful conclusion by the end of the year.
"I believe we'll get a good outturn. There's a degree of complexity that we're working through, and a deal's not done till you're happy with the shape of it," he said.
Long declined to comment on the recent speculation that Thomas Cook's charter airline Condor may join merger talks to create a three-way link-up. |
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