Turkey is gaining ground as a favorite holiday destination for Brits. The Cooperative Travel Group’s director of retail travel, Trevor Davis, said packaged holiday sales for Turkey have increased by 30 percent. Mr. Davis also said sales to Majorca, Spain’s top-selling holiday destination, dropped by 13 percent. Ian Hailes, head of product and development for Cosmos, offers similar statistics. Hailes said 2008 packaged summer vacation sales for destinations in Turkey were up by 25 percent while sales to destinations in Spain decreased by 6 percent.
Poor Economic Conditions
Prior to January 2008, predictions of poor economic conditions in the United States and Europe caused travel agents to cringe. Poor economic conditions, they feared, would cause business to plummet. While some families have elected to enjoy a ’stay-cation’, a stay-home-vacation, many others have not let economic misfortunes impact their vacation time. Travel expenses have caused the usual road-trip to become a flight. Some low-cost airlines have been working with travel agents to help increase their own business as well as retaining the agent’s client base. Agents are able to offer their clients less expensive flights to and from many points in Europe, making the overall cost of their vacation less expensive.
Currency Exchange Rates
It is speculated that the current euro-pound exchange rate is also behind some of the changes in holiday destinations. The pound is doing poorly against the euro, making Spanish vacations a bit more expensive than in previous years. The currency used in Turkey is the New Turkish Lira, introduced in 2005. Exchange rates from the pound to the lira are much more favorable than those of pound to euro. For those tourists who have felt the pinch of a struggling economy, a Turkish vacation could prove to be more affordable for the 2008 vacation season. Where ever their destination, travelers aren’t letting things like the economy and exchange rates ruin their plans. They’re simply learning to budget their vacation as needed.
Low Cost Airlines
Although packaged vacation sales to Turkey have been top sellers in 2008, low-cost airlines are reporting more flights to Spanish destinations being booked than last year. More than 4,000 flights have been booked to Palma, Majorca alone according to reports by the Palma airport.
Top Selling Packaged Vacations for Summer 2008
Dalaman, Turkey tops the list as the number one packaged vacation spot for Europeans for 2008. Following closely behind is Majorca, one of Spain’s Balearic Islands. The third destination is the Greek island of Crete. Turkey makes two appearances on the list, as Bodrum makes the list as the number four vacation destination for Europeans in 2008. Algarve, Portugal rounds out the top five packaged vacation destinations for summer 2008.
Ignacio Vasallo, director of the Spanish Tourist Office dismisses claims that Spain is losing ground as a favorite vacation destination. He said, ‘The big picture is that Spain is going to have 15.5 million UK visitors this year.’ Spain has a lot to offer each tourist who visits and the tourism office officials show no signs of worry that Spain may be losing ground, for whatever reason.