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Against all expectations – not least from the islands themselves – the Caribbean has been one of the star destinations to merge from an unsettled market for long haul travel so far in 2011, according to Hayes & Jarvis’ latest trend report. Another winner is Malaysia, which has out-performed a strong Thailand bounce back in sales following last year’s political troubles, by fueling demand with price initiatives like the recent £2 flight offer. However, the runaway success, according to the H&J Long Haul Report, is still Mexico – now a cool 140 per cent up in bookings compared with a year ago.
Hayes & Jarvis’ Fastest Growing Destination this year by some distance, Mexico is continuing to benefit from the introduction of BA’s direct flights to Cancun last winter and a wealth of excellent All Inclusive hotel deals. As a result, Mexico also emerges as runner-up to Egypt and Sri Lanka for best value in the All Inclusive Package Price Index.
However, the biggest savings revealed by the All Inclusive Package Price Index are to the Caribbean, where a June package to Barbados saves 40 per cent, to Antigua 33 per cent and to St Lucia 32 per cent. Hayes & Jarvis Commercial Director Niel Alobaidi said “growth of over 25 per cent for Antigua, Barbados, Cuba and Jamaica in the past two months has been fuelled by tactical discounting by Caribbean hoteliers. This proves that the increase in Air Passenger Duty has not been the deterrent that many imagined. Competitive pricing has delivered for the Caribbean, both for late summer bookings and for the crucial winter sun season.”
Egypt has yet to pull back after its revolution at the beginning of 2011 and tourism to the region has struggled since then, with Cairo and Luxor suffering most from the downturn in demand. The knock on effect is that bargain hunters will find unbeatable deals in Red Sea resorts in the coming months, which means that Egypt emerges as the best value destination in the H&J Package Price Index for the third time running.
Niel Alobaidi said: “There are amazing offers for travel to Egypt because of events earlier this year, both on hotels and air fares. This extends to Dubai, which has also been impacted by the negative publicity although multi-centre bookings where the Emirate is a stopover destination have not been adversely affected. From our past experience with destinations like Thailand, we know that popular resort areas are quick to bounce back and we would not be surprised to see Egypt regain lost ground in the months ahead.”
Supporting Alobaidi’s prediction of a swift Egypt recovery, Thailand has pulled back well after last year’s unrest in Bangkok. Hayes & Jarvis reports strong sales for Bangkok stopovers this year and says that by far the best performing beach resorts this year have been those – Phuket, Koh Samui, Khao Lak and Krabi – that involve a flight transfer from Bangkok. Thailand is also one of three Far East destinations – where winter 2011/12 bookings have accelerated in recent weeks to show year on year growth of over 20 per cent. Singapore and Malaysia complete the trio.
Malaysia has been 2011’s surprise success story. Long the underdog to Thailand, Malaysia benefited from a short term drift away from Thailand in 2010 and has capitalised on its growth potential this year with a series of short, sharp price incentives. The most dramatic of these was the £2 flight offer made to Hayes & Jarvis customers by Malaysian Airlines, which sold out in hours. The result of the move to more competitive pricing has been a dramatic bookings increase of over 70 per cent for Malaysian resorts compared with a year ago.
Value remains the big determiner in today’s long haul market and the sheer volume of discounted deals available means that Hayes & Jarvis has not seen the big fall off in long haul bookings widely predicted earlier in 2011. Niel Alobaidi says that “our sales are continuing to hold up well, supported by some excellent value savings in the market place, which backs up the view widely expressed that holidays are now considered a necessity and not a luxury.
“Early in 2011 we saw an increase in All Inclusive bookings and a drop in average holiday durations, which reflected the lack of consumer confidence and caution being exercised pre-Budget. However, now that we are well into the late booking summer market and bookings for next winter are contributing an increasing proportion of our sales with great deals available across the board, the volume of All Inclusive bookings has steadied to the same level – 20 per cent – as a year ago. Similarly, the average duration booked – just under 12½ days – is exactly what it was 12 months ago,” he added.
Theodore is the Co-Founder and Managing Editor of TravelDailyNews Media Network; his responsibilities include business development and planning for TravelDailyNews long-term opportunities.
