THE Holiday World exhibition opens in the RDS next Thursday. There are over 600 exhibitors, the biggest of which is the British, Tourist Authority. There are, some new faces, too, such as Australia, New Zealand, Japan, China, Philippines, Croatia, Namibia and Cuba. The Irish traveller is much sought after. We spend freely and the sun holiday market has been growing at an annual rate of 10 per cent for the last six years.
Tour operators have put a phenomenal 500,000 seats on the market this year, according to Gerry O Hare, managing editor, of Travel Extra. Last year, they sold 350,000. There is no way the market will absorb 500,000 seats, so cutbacks are inevitable and so too probably are bargains later in the year.
Downward pressure on prices will come also from the arrival in the Irish market of Thomson Holidays, the largest UK operator. Kevin Dufficy, Thomson's general manager for Ireland, says Irish holidaymakers have been overcharged down the years compared with British holidaymakers. It may of course simply be the case that Thomsons's buying power is so formidable that they can produce bargains better than any Irish operator.
When the Thomson brochure becomes available next week, Dufficy says, it will feature an apartment holiday for three adults in Ibiza in May for £99 each, and seven nights in an Ibiza apartment in May for two adults and two children for £443. These are undeniably attractive prices.
Thomson is investing £1 million in starting up its Irish operation, according to Dufficy. It will employ 15 people in its head office, in Clonskea, Dublin, and is recruiting 50 people to work for it, overseas. "We are keen that our Irish customers should have Irish representatives at their holiday destination," says Dufficy.
Another new player on the scene is Classic Choice, set up by two well-known players in the tour operation business, Gabrielle Malone and Freddie O'Neill. They are putting 24,000 seats on the market. Malone says that the seats currently on offer add up to an untenable 440,000 and we should expect the natural pruning which takes place as the tour operators take a more realistic view of the market.
Classic Choice has started encouragingly, according to Malone. They are offering the Algarve, she says, but not the "honky-tonk" end of that area. They have bought apartment space in Burgau in the western Algarve, a fishing village on which the Portuguese government has placed a preservation order. Two adults and two children can get a two-bedroom apartment in Burgau in June for £1,164. That includes everything except insurance.
Gillian Bowler of Budget Travel, the market leader, agrees that there is too much capacity on the market. There is time to trim it back between now and April The "nightmare scenario" is to go into the summer with too many seats on offer and irrevocable commitments made to the airlines and the owners of accommodation.
She warns, though, of the possibility of panic and tour operators pruning back so severely that there would he an undersupply, in which case people would have to buy their package holidays out of Belfast.
Cancun is a new destination in the Budget Travel brochure. A week can be enjoyed there for the price of a week in Majorca say between £450 and £500. Bowler says the reason is that Mexico is very cheap for food and drink. The hotels in Cancun are built to American standards. She says there is no crime in that part of Mexico. Flights are with Aeroflot from Shannon to Cancun with a short technical stop in Miami. About 75 per cent of the available seats are already sold, she says, and she is contemplating adding an extra series.
Budget Travel has dropped Jamaica because of the publicity surrounding an attack on an Irish tourist some years ago. But, she says, some people are addicted to Jamaica and Budget can get them there.
Club Med is also offering Cancun, sharing Budget's Aeroflot flight out of Shannon. Grainne Cryan of Club Med is recommending Paradise Island in the Bahamas to get away from it all and Columbus Isle is "a must for honeymooners".
You can get away from it all without crossing the Atlantic. The Holiday World exhibition has an Iceland stand with helpful advice on the best vantage point to view the Northern Lights.