Travel operators open package tour price war

BUDGET Travel yesterday fired the first shots in a holiday packages price war as the travel industry enters its busiest six-week booking period.

The largest tour operator in the country said it was determined to offer Irish consumers the best value holidays available.

Managing director Eugene Corcoran said: “We are committed to a low-cost model which will enable us to continually outperform every other tour operator in the Irish market.

“We’ve aggressively attacked our cost base to enable us to launch these low-price holidays and we believe that the other major players in the Irish market will be unable to compete with these prices.”

Budget’s claim that it was engaging in “the most aggressive pricing policy for holiday packages ever” was rejected by Panorama & Airtours Holidays marketing manager Eamonn Quinn.

Disputing that customers would see a significant price difference between Budget prices and those of other operators, he said: “In the past number of years, prices have converged and the price advantage Budget used to have has been whittled away.”

The latest discounts from Budget follow its announcement last October to halve the 10% commission it pays travel agents with effect from January 1. Most of its rivals continue to pay the 10% rate.

Niall McDonnell, managing director of Panorama & Airtours, warned consumers to beware of self-packaged holidays which were not necessarily cheaper and which could leave people in the lurch.

This could happen if an airline collapsed or any issue developed in relation to the accommodation, as neither had any form of consumer protection in place.

According to Mr McDonnell, demand for 2005 summer holiday packages is significantly higher than the previous year. In real terms, they are cheaper than 15 years ago when only 250,000 could afford to holiday abroad - compared with the current 1.3 million.