Starved of vitamin D and craving some sunshine? Many of you will be starting to plan your Summer holidays. You’ll be glad to hear then, that there will an extra 30,000 holidays on offer for Irish holidaymakers this Summer. The 10% increase in capacity is due to a recovery in consumer demand and will be the first increase in package holiday supply in Ireland in years.
Travel expert and writer, Fionn Davenport of the Irish Times joined Breakfast this morning to tell us all you need to know when booking your summer excursions.
To begin with, Fionn gave advice to anyone who had booked a package holiday with Ireland’s second biggest operator, Thomas Cook. They announced yesterday that they are closing their Dublin office in April this year. Fionn said that if you booked your holidays for before April 30th then nothing has changed. But if you booked it for May 1st or after then you will be given two options: You can get a full refund or else they will book another holiday for you.
He told Ivan that the company had a tough year last year, and that travel agents in general have found the last few years very hard. Over 10 years ago, there were over a million packages sold in Ireland every year, but now those numbers are down to around 300,000.
He explained how the low cost model has changed and consumers like to make bookings themselves. Because of this, a number of tour operators are moving into a model they call dynamic packaging, which is when you go into the agent and they help you chose the best flights and accommodation that suit your needs, as opposed to the old style package holiday which would have been made from pre-booked hotels and flights.
According to Fionn, The Canaries, Turkey and Costa del Sol are still the top destinations for Irish holidaymakers, mainly because of price and variety within each spot. If you’re trying to save on the cost, you’ll get more competitive prices if you book for the Summer now, along with much more choice. If you wait for the last minute deals, it may be cheap you might be limited in what’s on offer.
Listen to the interview in full below. Bon Voyage!
