SARS not expected to threaten sun holidays

TOUR operators don’t expect the SARS threat to affect demand for sun holidays this summer.

Last year a record 1.06 million Irish people took overseas sun holidays between May and October and the Irish Travel Agents Association (ITAA) expects that figure to be matched again this year.

ITAA president Tony Brazil said bookings slowed down after a busy start to the year but pre-Christmas bookings were up 30% on 2002.

While the uncertainty surrounding the Iraqi conflict dampened demand in the weeks leading up to the conflict, the last few weeks had seen a flurry of activity.

“Our forecast for the year end in October for holidays is that we will probably match last year’s figure and we think that is a very good performance,” Mr Brazil said.

SARS has impacted more on long-haul destinations rather than on popular Europe-based holiday destinations, he said.

Mr Brazil said long-haul destinations represented less than 5% of the total holiday business.

He said that those who had opted for long-haul holidays were also given an opportunity to change destinations, if they so wished.

Yesterday, the ITAA joined the Irish Tour Operators Federation (ITOF) to mark the start of the traditional escape from the Irish summer. In a bid to stir up the holiday mood the two organisations are offering an extensive range of European and long-haul holiday prizes worth 100,000 in competitions that will be carried in various national media.

ITOF president Niall McDonnell said the sun holiday market remained steady despite recent events because they had lost the “luxury goods” tag they once had while not compromising on quality.

“It’s now cheaper to book a quality summer sun holiday than it was in the 1980s,” he said.