The travel industry?s message that you have to book early to get the best deal is starting to get through to holidaymakers, according to new figures from Gold Medal.
Figures indicate that families are flocking to secure their favourite destinations well in advance ? reversing the years-old trend of trying to bag a last-minute bargain.
The operator has witnessed a dramatic increase in bookings from agents on departures booked up to 19 months in advance booked in the calendar year to date. Most significant increases were seen in popular family destinations such as the Maldives, Florida, Dubai and the Caribbean, especially during the high demand school holiday periods.
Lisa McAuley, managing director for dnata Travel B2B Europe, said: ?As an industry we have been saying for years that the way to guarantee the holiday you want at the best price is to book it early, but the combination of excess capacity and the internet has made that a hard message to always make stick. Nowadays suppliers manage their inventory much better and agents are securing those early deals for their consumers.?
As a result of securing their hotel rates and offers up to two years in advance and passing on this guaranteed pricing to agents, the trade specialist has seen huge booking leaps for holidays departing in the Easter, Summer and Christmas breaks for 2019. For example, sales for Easter 2019 in the Caribbean were up 101%, while early business to Florida for the summer 2019 leapt 49%. Meanwhile, Christmas 2019 was up 159% for Thailand.
To capitalise on the shifting attitudes, the operaror has released its latest Florida and Caribbean & Mexico 2019 brochures, which offer agents the chance to book throughout 2019.
