Greece’s decision not to enforce new digital border procedures for British travellers this summer is helping it to win holiday bookings, according to the Advantage Travel Partnership.
The agent consortium is predicting a strong year for Greece, whose government is insisting that UK holidaymakers will not yet face the biometric checks being rolled out in other European countries.
“Greece is theming itself as an easy place to get to and this has helped it rebound,” said Commercial Director John Sullivan.
Advantage has already warned of severe disruption in some European airports due to the additional checks, particularly during the peak summer period, and is urging the European Union to delay the enforcement.
“The Entry/Exit System (EES) should be paused until they (European airports) are confident they can roll it out in a seamless manner,” said Advantage Chief Executive Julia Lo Bue-Said at the consortium’s overseas conference in Madrid this week.
Giving a trading update, Advantage said its independent travel agency members had generally been trading “really well” before the Middle East conflict began and had been building back their businesses since Covid.
“Until the crisis, the market was performing strongly and travel had really held its own,” said Lo Bue-Said.
She said continued uncertainty made it difficult to predict which way the market would go and how the crisis would affect forward bookings.
“It’s really difficult. You don’t know month to month the consumer sentiment or what’s going to happen. We just have to wait and see what that’s going to look like.”
She said the fuel shortage was “definitely having an impact” on the price of long-haul flights but there would still be good deals to short-haul destinations.
“There is an abundance of availability and with people not able to go to the Middle East, we expect to see a bumper year for the more mature short-haul summer destinations such as Spain. People are saying, ‘We know we can’t go to Dubai, but we’re not going without’.”
Turkey is also selling well thanks to keen pricing, according to Advantage.
But average booking values are holding out, said Sullivan. “We’re seeing great tactical prices and loss leaders in Turkey, which are attracting people back. But once you’ve got them back, what they actually book often isn’t the loss leader.
“Turkey is coming back. Consumers are quite resilient and they’ve got used to living in a world where we lurch from one crisis to the next.”
“It’s not about the cheapest price and a race to the bottom, it’s about getting as much as you can with your budget. It’s all about that value piece.”
Advantage reported that among long-haul destination the U.S. is continuing to sell well, particularly the “big hitters” such as Orlando, New York and Las Vegas.
Meanwhile, the Caribbean is enjoying a resurgence as travellers choose to fly west instead of east, and on the back of airlines such as British Airways and Virgin Atlantic switching some capacity from Far East destinations to the region.
