Slow death of the package holiday

There was a time when organising a foreign holiday almost had to be done through the agents. In recent years, however, the internet has enabled consumers to cut out the middle men, and sales for the travel industry have soared, but it’s spelling doom for package holidays.

There are now many websites out there that offer dynamic packaging, whereby holidaymakers will put together will have a number of options to create a package suitable for them. Some companies offer just flights, but then there are others where you can get a whole series of add-ons, such as a hotel or rental car. With two thirds of households having fast broadband connections, and an explosion in both internet travel companies and low cost airlines, the decline in the traditional package holiday has escalated in recent years.

There has been a long term slump in the package holiday industry, leading to a consolidation of providers in the market place. Thomas Cook, Thomson Holidays, and First Choice are all groups that have grown significantly, but now face a set of worrying statistics for future trends. The Office of National Statistics said the Britons took 20.6 million package holidays in 2001. This fell to 18.9 million in 2005. Market research suggests that package holidays will see further declines of 1 per cent over the next five years while independent book-it-yourself holidays will see an increase of some 45 per cent.

Booking your own holiday, however, won’t necessarily get you the best bargain. Reports in recent summers have told of the desperate measures taken by package holiday companies to counteract the low demand. As eleven million Brits chose their own B-I-Y route, Lastminute.com had a package to Ibiza, including return flights from Gatwick, for just £9! You would, however, be very lucky to be able to take advantage of this cheap deal bonanza, and organising everything from booking time off work to getting friends involved would be very difficult.

Despite their cheapness, there are other disadvantages to a B-I-Y holiday. If you book a package holiday through a regular tour operator, you’re protected against mishaps such as cancellation by two schemes – the Association of British Travel Agents, and the Air Travel Organiser’s Licensing Operation. When you book a package holiday through an operator your contract is with them. This means they will be legally obliged to inform you and arrange a replacement at no extra cost if you suffer a cancellation.

On a B-I-Y holiday therefore, it is essential to get travel insurance that covers for cancellation as well as ill health. There are certainly enough cheap insurance deals out there to continue keeping the costs of your B-I-Y cheaper than many packages offered on the high street.

There is a wide range of internet providers that can help put your holiday together without travel agents. For cheap flights, take a look at Monarch Airlines or Cheap Flights.co.uk. There are also many different hotel directories and suppliers; just type ‘cheap hotels in (your destination)’ into Google, and have a shop around – you be able to create your own convenient package in no time!