Trade reports strong February but price concerns persist

The trade has reported a strong February so far, but noted price levels are continuing to deter segments of the market.

Last week was generally described as positive for sales, with The Advantage Travel Partnership highlighting cruise as helping to drive revenue growth of 15% year on year and bookings growth of 3%.

Barrhead Travel’s sales last week were 13% up year on year, meaning the agency is on track for double-digit growth for the month.

Jacqueline Dobson, president of Barrhead Travel Group, said: “From what we are seeing so far, there is a high demand for holidays. The demand is at least as high as it was last year, but our initial growth suggests that spending on holidays is likely to increase for 2025.”

ArrangeMY Escape general manager Jennifer Lynch (pictured) said the agency’s shops in Worcester and Malvern had achieved a 42% rise in turnover and a 56% increase in commission in the month to date compared with the same period last year.

Cruise is “massively up”, she said, adding: “We’ve booked more high-end cruises than we’ve ever booked before. They’ve got much higher commissions attached to them.”

There has also been significant demand for “experiential” trips, but increasing numbers of clients are showing hesitancy following enquiries.

“People are getting all the information and then saying, ‘Can you send it to me, so I can mull it over’?” said Lynch, who added that price concerns are being voiced by all market segments including clients seeking luxury trips.

Triangle Travel managing director Rob Kenton said last week’s turnover was 101% up on the previous year, while commission was up by 91%, with the average selling price being 63% higher than previous weeks.

Trading in the month so far was 13% up on last year, he added, while January was flat.

He said price-related hesitancy was more commonly expressed by those in the “middle or lower end” of the market.

“We’ve had people coming in with quite tight budgets, but the top end of the market is performing well,” he said.

“A lot of people in the top end are concerned they’re going to get taxed, so they’re trying to spend before the government gets their money.”

Idle Travel director Tony Mann said February trading so far was the best in the company’s history.

He added: “January was down on last year because we had a week of snow, meaning the schools were closed, but February started off really well and we’re ahead of where we were last year by quite a bit. Anything can happen but we’re ahead, so we’re well chuffed.”

Mann agreed that prices were felt to be high, saying: “Everyone expected the prices to go up, but they’ve probably gone up further than expected.”

Clients are responding to the costs by changing durations, star ratings or destinations, he said.

Some clients looking for trips in March or April are booking Turkey instead of the Canary Islands or mainland Spain, while Bulgaria is appearing more often as a destination in the summer.

“I’m wondering if we’ll come to a late market for summer,” Mann added.

Travelosophers head of sales Nisha Bean said the homeworking agency had been enjoying a “great February”.

“We feel it has been busier than January,” she added. “We have got more workers [than last year] but we are up considerably from February last year and there’s still a week to go.”

Other agencies reported that although they were busy, an unusually high proportion of bookings were for last-minute trips or for distant departure dates.

TravelTime World director Ashley Quint said: “We’re getting a lot of bookings for before and up to Easter and then later holidays for after the summer or next year or 2027; it’s quite close in or more than six months out and not much in between.”

Haslemere Travel owner Gemma Antrobus said: “We’re really busy. We’ve had some really late turnarounds where people want to go away in the next couple of weeks or in March or not until next summer, with very little in the middle. The majority of sales are for far ahead or close to booking.”

On price concerns, Dobson said: “I think what people are most concerned about is ensuring that they get value for money.

“Customers are price conscious, but what they are prioritising is high-quality experiences that offer great value.”