Travel agencies become pessimistic

Travel agencies are boosting the number of last-minute offers and are cutting holiday package prices in order to meet their beginning-of-the-year targets, after the crisis has affected many consumers’ appetite for travel, and prompted them to make savings in this precarious context. Shorter trips, new destinations, pessimistic 2009 forecasts are characteristics of the travel agencies market in 2009. Players expect their turnovers to go down, and the market growth rate to halve compared with 2008. The change in forecast occurred in a very short period, considering that about a month ago, the majority of travel agencies said they were not affected by the crisis and that they did not think the impact of the crisis would be so strong. “Promotions conducted in this period are a seasonal practice, anyway. We have started to negotiate the price of winter packages early, in order to make sure we have a competitive edge, because we have noticed the effects of the crisis on the traditional markets we are operating on (…),” said Cristina Irimia , marketing manager with travel agency J’Info Tours, one of the leading players on the travel market.