HOLIDAY BARGAINS:IT'S NOT TOO late to bring the kids to Florida next week: you can still go on Tuesday for €299 per person with Tour America and be home for school next Monday – a price and an availability that would have been unimaginable this time last year.
Prices have been cut by between 25 and 50 per cent compared with 2008, leaving even cash-strapped Irish holidaymakers unable to ignore a bargain.
“Hotels over there are empty, and they have responded by slashing prices,” says Mary McKenna, managing director of Tour America. “On top of that there are no fuel surcharges, which last year added an average of €170 to the price of each ticket.”
Although overall passenger numbers from Ireland to the US have fallen by 33 per cent this year, Tour America has doubled its sales volume as people respond to holiday deals.
“It isn’t just theme parks: you can get a Florida villa with pool now for €300 a week, half what you’d pay last year,” says McKenna.
Package prices to Disney resorts, traditionally more expensive than other parts of Orlando, have fallen by up to 25 per cent.
“We are also seeing value-added deals, such as 14 nights for the price of 10 and a week’s free Disney pass, which are unheard of,” says Ciara Corcoran of American Holidays. “And it’s coming on top of an already favourable exchange rate.”
European ski prices have fallen, too, by an average of 20 per cent, with packages to Livigno, in Italy, and Andorra, in the Pyrenees, slashed to half-price in the past week.
Prices for traditional winter-sun holidays in the Canary Islands, Morocco and Tunisia have held firmer, mainly due to cuts in capacity of about 20 per cent.
“People waited this year, and we saw a lot of late bookings,” says Louise Jordan of Sunway. “In the end the Canaries, Morocco and Tunisia all sold out but with marginal discounting of less than 10 per cent.”
Amanda Kelly, marketing manager of Thomas Cook Group, which owns the Panorama, Sunworld and Direct Holidays brands, says: “We did cut slightly across the board on winter sun, and it was the right move to make . . . We had nothing left for winter sun this week – just a few ski seats to Livigno and Andorra.”
Falcon, Budget, Panorama, Sunworld and Direct Holidays all sold out of midterm packages. Tunisia was slower to sell this year, with Sunway offering a week half-board for €255.
Irish hoteliers are feeling the pinch, too. Although they have offered few big discounts on midterm packages, they have added value by throwing in extra nights, meals and entertainment.
John Power, the chief executive of the Irish Hotels Federation, says: “Things are tough but fairly positive on the home market, and members are rising to the challenge by introducing competitively priced packages.”
This week the federation launched Value Breaks on its website, www.irelandhotels.com, featuring two- and three-night packages of bed, breakfast and one dinner with prices from €99 per person sharing in three-star hotels to €200 per person sharing in five-star hotels.