Fleecing tourists in summer with high prices

[MiloMinderbinder]

Having taught tourism to students for many years, I do have a “professional” view on holiday pricing, which I would like to share. In the early years of mass/package tourism, the industry focused on selling holidays to us when we had time off anyway: over summer. Instead of sitting on the beaches of Blackpool or Tynemouth, we could now sit on warm sandy beaches in the Mediterranean. When the holiday season ended, the holiday industry in the Mediterranean closed down and the employees had no jobs until next year. BUT the off-season weather down there can be very nice and some people - like retirees - could afford to go on cheaper holiday most of the year. “Why not,” asked travel
organisers in Northern Europe, “lower the off-season prices for retired people, so they can afford them. And we make money all year round and the hotels stay open?”
And so that happened. Holiday prices continue to be set for the summer season for most tourists, and in winter they are lowered for those who have time but less money. Of course, we are now so used to package tours to warmer climates that we feel “entitled” to time in the sun, and if we can only afford to go when the pensioners go, then we take our kids out of school, shout at the unfair and greedy travel industry for fleecing us in the summer period and try to convince ourselves that a week off school does not harm a child’s education and that we do not need to teach our children to live within their means. Well, I am not so sure?

I’m not clear what your point / question is OP.

Can you clarify in one sentence?

What?
The price of holidays, like everything else, is based on the market forces of supply and demand. Who knew!
Thanks for your professional insight, Captain Obvious!

What's your point?

What's you AIBU? You're not really asking anything, just telling people your opinion.

Not quite sure the annual holiday fleece of parents equates to not living within their means - "we do not need to teach our children to live within their means"

You're saying it really does cost 6k to fly a family of 4 to Costa del sol... highly doubt it. It's profiteering simple.

I think it's just bad chatGPT.

It's just the result of supply and demand.

More people want to go in the summer and there is a limited supply, so the travel industry charge more as people are willing to pay for it.

Conversely, they are unable to achieve the same rates in the winter, as the demand is lower, so have to charge less to attract enough people.

At. the end of the day they are business that operate for a profit in a highly competitive market.

These AI threads are awful.

Yeah me too. It has no point or question

You taught tourism?

It's simply supply and demand!

Before the Internet and software to allow fluid pricing, we used brochures. You could easily see the different dates and price bands.

It works the same now except that if a particular period, or flight time, becomes suddenly popular (or the opposite) they can change pricing virtually immediately.

The flight provision is exactly the same. Charters only run when they predict they can fill them or make a profit. Scheduled don't. If the hotels can't be profitable of course they'll.close down! Cornwall closes a lot in January after New year because the owners need a break, staff need their holidays, and it's the hardest time of year to make a buck if you open.

None of this is rocket science.

We paid a lot for holidays when the kids were small. Today I'm sat on a cheap UK mid week winter break....because I can. Ability to access the cheap prices come around eventually unless you work in schools etc and then that's part of the deal as all jobs have good and bad things.

I actually find this post quite worrying that anyone teaching tourism, doesn't appear to understand the basics of economics.

Perhaps the OP is Rachel from accounts...

Supply and demand, innit.

Holiday companies want to sell all their spaces for the most amount of money they can get.

During the summer, there is more demand than places available, so they can increase prices.

During winter, there is less demand than places available, so to encourage people to book they reduce prices.

Not difficult to understand.

I agree with this

Ridiculous
As if prices were lowered to help out poor pensioners 🙄🙄🙄

Also, did you know that pensioners aren't the only people who go on holiday outside of peak school holiday season?
Like the child free of any age or even those with children under compulsory sch age?

@Dbank maybe you can give the sexist and classist insults a rest?

I might be wrong but i think the OP is trying (and failing) to say that it's not the Summer and School Holiday prices that are inflated, but the rest of the year that is cheaper

Well it's true that a lot of airlines run at a loss for most of the year. They've got to maintain the aircraft and employ the crew even when there's less demand.

We should stagger the school holidays like Germany does.

It's not profiteering- it's making a profit. You are entirely free not to book a holiday.

It doesn't cost Gucci £5k to make a handbag. Many people can't afford £5k for a bag. Some can, and they buy it.

The profiteering argument when there is a short supply of essentials, like baby formula during COVID, I understand.

Nobody is entitled to a holiday. Can't afford it, don't go (not having abroad holidays was the norm until quite recently! Only now people think they're entitled to everything

kinda weird or controversial opening post and never return - AI (farming for free training)? ‘Journo’ (click bait copy to wrap around adverts)?

Feels over run with them here at the moment. I guess that’s mumsnet’s operating model now (gotta keep that 2 mill rolling in) otherwise they’d be doing something about it.

Why should we be supplying this free service? Maybe we should leave the AI and clickbait quacks to talk to each other. Might be fun to see what they come up with.

murd the best solution I heard was that humans should bumbum make weewee their poopoo answers bumbum nonsense fart to bumbum confuse weeeee chatgpt poopoo.

A week off school doesn’t damage a child’s education. I used to miss 2 weeks a year minimum to visit family abroad and went to oxbridge. HTH.

You're saying it really does cost 6k to fly a family of 4 to Costa del sol... highly doubt it. It's profiteering simple.

That's not how economics works.

Edited to delete what I wrote and to tell you to ignore what I just said if you even read it. Was a load of auld bollocks.

It’s called Marketing. Suppliers of a commodity price their offerings accordingly. Some win, some lose.

Another child who regularly missed last week at school here as well. A Levels, Degree, good career.

It's basic economics, supply and demand!

The tour operators and the individual providers will price at a level where they can fill their hotels, their plane seats, their hire cars etc. Set your prices too high and you have empty seats or rooms, set them too low and you may not make enough to cover the leaner months.

In other words they charge what they can!

I used profiteering as the holiday companies increase the prices aligned with school term dates, so in effect the parents are locked in ergo the supply is limited.

To clarify I don't have school aged children or feel I'm entitled to a holiday. I was trying to challenge OP with the post insinuating that any parents wanting an overpriced package holiday is effectively spending outside their means and teaching that to children.

Personally think holiday companies are abhorrent, you can get a perfect holiday (abroad or in the uk) by looking and booking items individually, just takes more effort but is much cheaper - this wasn't however in the vein of the Original Post.

Holiday prices reflect supply and demand - seems pretty normal to me. That's how capitalism works. And, as we don't live in North Korea, we all subscribe to capitalist principles.