ABTA has defended agents who were wrongly blamed for hiking holiday prices during a Radio 2 phone-in show.
Yesterday’s Jeremy Vine show caused uproar among travel agents after listeners said they were to blame for price hikes during the school holidays.
Jeremy returned to the subject this morning, inviting ABTA Media Relations Manager Sean Tipton on the show. Sean stuck up for agents and explained why the host’s suggestion of forcing suppliers to level up prices throughout the year, and make them lower during school holidays, wouldn’t work.
Jeremy asked: “We do intervene in markets – why shouldn’t the Government intervene in this one?”
Sean said: “Travel agents don’t set the prices. Ultimately, they are set by the hotels and other accommodation providers and the airlines. Prices go up whenever demand increases –Christmas, Easter and July and August, which are already very busy times of the year.
“I don’t know if you have ever been to Spain in August but the whole country goes on holiday, generally to the beach, so this is the time of the year when the hotels make their money. That makes up for quieter times of the year. A week in Benidorm is cheaper in March – that’s because hardly anyone goes on holiday in March.
“It’s economic reality that prices will increase when demand increases.”
Sean added that suppliers lose money during some of the year and urged parents to book early to get the best school holiday deals.
Henbury Travel Managing Director Richard Slater phoned in to the show to say: “This question comes up all the time. If you increase the prices the rest of the year, it just won’t work.
“Book early. Holidays are on sale 18 months in advance, use local travel agent – we work like a human search engine so we compare the costs of all the operators to find the best deals, that are financially protected.
“The travel agent doesn’t set the price. It’s set by the hotelier and they might have different rates for different markets at different dates.”
