Table of Contents
Overview
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- What you need to know
- Covered in this Report
Executive Summary
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- Agency bookings show revival but continue to lose market share
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- Figure 1: Estimated total number of holidays booked via travel agents, 2011-21
- Package resilience is helpful for shops
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- Figure 2: Independent versus package overseas holiday volume, 2011-16
- New destination opportunities
- Shop numbers down 15% in past eight years
- Cook and TUI developing concept store formats
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- Figure 3: Travel agent brands used, October 2016
- The multichannel customer
- Specialise to survive
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- Figure 4: Type of holidays booked via a travel agent, October 2016
- Online wins on value for money but shops retain core strengths
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- Figure 5: Attitudes towards travel agents, October 2016
- What we think
Issues and Insights
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- Time and knowledge are increasingly valuable commodities in the digital world
- The facts
- The implications
- Travel agents can become value-for-money experts
- The facts
- The implications
- An ageing traveller population will seek health advice
- The facts
- The implications
- Enriching the holiday by selling experiences
- The facts
- The implications
The Market – What You Need to Know
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- Agency bookings up but share continues to decline
- Rising cost of overseas travel
- Package revival helps shops
- Demand for alternative destinations set to grow
- Lowcost failure puts protection back in spotlight
Market Size and Forecast
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- Travel shop bookings rise but continue to lose market share
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- Figure 6: Estimated total number of holidays booked via travel agents, 2011-21
- Figure 7: Estimated number of overseas and domestic holidays booked via travel agents, 2011-21
- Future
- Forecast
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- Figure 8: Estimated total number of holidays booked via travel agents, 2011-21
- The impact of the EU referendum vote
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- Figure 9: Alternative market scenarios for the post-Brexit travel agents market, by total volume of bookings, 2016-21
- Figure 10: Detailed post-Brexit scenarios for the post-Brexit travel agents market, by total volume of bookings, 2016-21
- A ‘Brexit-recession’ would likely accelerate rate of decline
Market Background
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- Macroeconomic factors positive but uncertainty lies ahead
- Challenging year expected for overseas holidays
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- Figure 11: Domestic and overseas holiday volume and expenditure, 2011-16
- Packages prove resilient
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- Figure 12: Independent versus package overseas holiday volume, 2011-16
- Rising demand for Spain
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- Figure 13: Top 20 overseas holiday destinations, by number of trips, 2011-15
- New long-haul opportunities
- Pound’s fall set to impact on holiday costs in 2017
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- Figure 14: Sterling exchange rate vs selected currencies, annual averages 2011-15, and spot rate November 2016
- Lowcost failure likely to boost ATOL packages
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- Figure 15: ATOL tour operator failures/closures in the UK, 1 January-22 November 2016
Key Players – What You Need to Know
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- Supplyside decline
- Cook/TUI focus on concept stores
- Virgin expands V-Room chain
- Brochures out, lifestyle mags in
- Specialities of the house
- New apps point the way ahead for agents
Launch Activity and Innovation
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- Mobile shops
- Pleasures of print
- Specialisation is key
- Human technology interaction
Market Share
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- Long-term decline in supply
- Thomas Cook retains largest estate
- Thomson to rebrand as TUI
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- Figure 16: Top UK travel agents, by number of retail stores, November 2016
- Hays continues to expand
- Virgin and Kuoni aim to project brand values via shops
- Barrhead heads south
- High level of fragmentation
- Consumer market share mirrors supply
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- Figure 17: Travel agent brands used, October 2016
- ‘Big two’ suppliers becoming ‘big three’
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- Figure 18: Top 20 UK travel companies, ranked by ATOL passenger licences, November 2016
Brand Research
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- Brand map
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- Figure 19: Attitudes towards and usage of selected brands, November 2016
- Key brand metrics
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- Figure 20: Key metrics for selected brands, November 2016
- Brand attitudes: Virgin rated top on quality
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- Figure 21: Attitudes, by brand, November 2016
- Brand personality: TUI/Cook seen as most accessible
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- Figure 22: Brand personality – Macro image, November 2016
- ‘Special’ Trailfinders
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- Figure 23: Brand personality – Micro image, November 2016
- Brand analysis
- Virgin scores highest for innovation
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- Figure 24: User profile of Virgin Holidays, November 2016
- Brand analysis
- Thomson outperforms Thomas Cook
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- Figure 25: User profile of Thomson, November 2016
- Brand analysis
- Cook not seen as an innovator
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- Figure 26: User profile of Thomas Cook, November 2016
- Brand analysis
- Flight Centre lacks awareness but scores well on customer satisfaction
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- Figure 27: User profile of Flight Centre, November 2016
- Brand analysis
- Co-operative travel dogged by ‘tired’ image
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- Figure 28: User profile of The Co-operative Travel, November 2016
- Brand analysis
- Strong ‘excellent’ rating for STA
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- Figure 29: User profile of STA Travel, November 2016
- Brand analysis
- Trailfinders punches above its weight
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- Figure 30: User profile of Trailfinders, November 2016
- Brand analysis
The Consumer – What You Need to Know
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- Research collaborators
- Almost three quarters of travel shop researchers also book in a shop
- Long-haul travellers especially likely to visit shops
- Beach still dominates
- Takeaway brochures still popular for browsing
- Pull factors remain
Holiday Research and Booking
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- One in four holidaymakers are multichannel researchers
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- Figure 31: Research activities prior to booking holidays, October 2016
- One in four travel shop researchers do not book in-store
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- Figure 32: Methods of booking holidays, October 2016
- Four in 10 shop bookers are over-55s
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- Figure 33: Age profile of those who book in travel agent shops, October 2016
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- Figure 34: Lifestage profile of those who book in travel agent shops, October 2016
- Shops serve a broad range of household budgets
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- Figure 35: Socio-economic profile of those who book in travel agent shops, October 2016
Travel Agent Booking
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- A third of shop bookers go long-haul
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- Figure 36: Type of bookings made via a travel agent, October 2016
- Targeting spontaneous short breakers
- Ancillary sales opportunities
- Beyond the beach
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- Figure 37: Type of holidays booked via a travel agent, October 2016
- Adventurous agents
Incentives to Use a Travel Agent
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- Value experts
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- Figure 38: Things that would encourage people to use a travel agent, October 2016
- Pull of print
- New in-store tech needs to be promoted
- Digital refuge
- Millennial events
- Health matters
Attitudes towards Travel Agents
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- Shops have lost the argument over value for money
- Expertise is still a pull factor – but less so among non-users
- Travel curators
- Time lords
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- Figure 39: Attitudes towards travel agents, October 2016
- Sense of security
- Consumers generally negative about agents…
- …but core strengths are still recognised
Appendix
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- Definitions
- Abbreviations
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