The long-term shift towards independent bookings stalled during the recession as cash-strapped holidaymakers sacrificed choice in favour of the value for money offered by aggressively priced commodity packaged products. As the UK enters a period of economic recovery, package brands face a range of challenges from increasingly powerful online comparison sites, the advent of no-frills long-haul airfares and changes to legislation that grant a similar level of financial protection to previously unprotected independent products.
This report examines package and independent holidays taken by UK residents, and explores the motivations behind each booking method. The report also provides a five-year volume and value forecast for both package and independent holidays taken abroad, explores the challenges and opportunities that operators will face in 2014 and investigates the core drivers behind changes in the market. The report also looks at consumer experience of and attitudes towards all-inclusive holidays. This subject was last explored in Mintel’s Package vs Independent Holidays – UK, February 2013.
Definition
This report examines the habits and attitudes of British adults concerning package and independent holidays taken both in the UK and abroad. A holiday must constitute at least one overnight stay. The business travel market is not reviewed in this report.
For the purposes of this report, Mintel defines a package holiday in conjunction with the International Passenger Survey (IPS) as an ‘advertised inclusive tour or package holiday’. A package holiday is considered to be a holiday in which a return fare and accommodation are purchased from one provider, for a single price.
An adult, for the purposes of Mintel’s research, is anyone aged 16 or over.
The standard travel and tourism definitions used in the terminology of this report are as follows:
Tourism is any travel which involves at least one overnight stay away from home.
A holiday is a subjectively defined form of tourism, as defined by the tourist in response to surveys such as the IPS. A holiday can be distinguished from other leisure travel such as visits to friends and relatives (VFR) or shopping trips.
Short-haul refers destinations within Europe. The following destinations are considered to be short-haul: Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus EU, Cyprus Non-EU, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Gibraltar, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Irish Republic, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Russia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey and Other Europe.
Long-haul refers to destinations outside of Europe.
The Canaries are included as a part of the Spanish market, and Madeira and the Azores are included as part of the Portuguese market.
A package holiday is defined as the simultaneous sale of at least two elements of a holiday to the traveller: fares on public transport (eg flights) and commercial accommodation (eg hotel or self-catering apartment). Other elements, such as meals or excursions, are not essential to the definition of an inclusive tour. The term ‘all-inclusive’ is used to describe a special type of resort holiday in which food, drink, excursions and other services are provided as part of the total holiday cost.
An independent holiday is one in which the traveller organises and books transport and accommodation from separate sources (eg a Channel ferry crossing and a caravan site in France).
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