Call for government action over increased holiday prices during school holidays

[CatherineHMumsnet]

Following the story today on how a father's Facebook rant about how travel companies increase holiday prices during the school holidays encouraged 143,000 people to sign a petition calling for government action, we were wondering what Mumsnetters' opinions were on the subject.

Are you sick of being forced to pay dramatically higher prices to take a holiday when schools are out? Or do you see it, as ABTA do, as a straightforward issue of supply and demand?

Agree, lots of areas heavily reliant on the tourist industry would be devasted by not being able to up charges during the summer. It would have a significant impact on local economies, employment, tax revenue etc

Timing is all....In Scandinavia their summer hols start and end much earlier than the UK so go later and no problem booking online as they all speak English. Last time we went to Greece we hired a car at Easter, booked hotels via internet day by day, weather was OK most of the time, arranged the museum type things when rain predicted. Loads of beautiful hotels almost empty and willing to do very, very good deals - all desperate to get good Tripadvisor reviews for the Summer. Met some really lovely people and all much less crowded than the peak season... Do think it's nice to have a proper holiday but it is a luxury that we have certainly done without when we couldn't afford it. Sad thing is that camping used to be cheap and that is now expensive and sites are often fully booked in advance over the summer as well, so forget spontaneity. It's even worse for my big son and his teenage mates who can't even book a pitch without us oldies also going along as they won't accept teenagers. :)

holiday cottages may seem cheap to a driving family of four or five. as a non driving single parent of one child it is a hell of a lot cheaper for me to fly somewhere where the cost of living is cheap.

£500 for a cottage plus probably £100 in train and taxi fares and then having to pay the cost of living for food and activities in uk costs much more than a cheap flight. also having lived abroad and having friends abroad i have very cheap options for holidays and actually get to see people i know and have a bit of company.

we do need to shake the idea that foreign holidays are a luxury and are more expensive than the uk. it is genuinely cheaper for a one adult, one child family to go overseas with a bit of creativity than it is to go somewhere here. camping is not really an option with only one person to carry stuff and no car - nor is it much of a holiday for a single parent being sat in a tent on a campsite with no company and a child to entertain, feed and care for in worse conditions than home.

generally i would spend a lot on a long distance flight but then very little due to housesitting for a friend and seriously cheap cost of living there. we did once do a package and for me and ds to spend a week in early september in a hotel in majorca all inclusive cost me about £250 all in. i fail to see how i could have gotten us a holiday in the uk for that price that included everything we ate and drank, our accommodation, our transport and our entertainment.

Apologies if this has been said, but the petition has been created because the govt refuse to budge on these awful fines the schools charge.

So the petition is saying, ok, do something about the prices during the holidays then.

But yet again the Tories upt the interests of big business over those of the public, while simultaneously placing more barriers in the way of ordinary people.

Foreign holidays are a luxury, they are not a necessity.

To avoid the fines, just send your children to school. Simple.
I think everyone knows taking them out isn't a good thing. Previously when there have been no fines, people have been able to do it, without feeling too bad and somehow justified I. That the school accepted it. The thing with the fines, is people don't like feeling judged negatively. But taking your child out of school is damaging to their education, which is why the policy was introduced. So just don't do it and then you won't get fined.

"we do need to shake the idea that foreign holidays are a luxury"

Er no, we really don't. If you don't like camping, and don't drive and can find something reasonable abroad which suits your personal circumstances and budget, great, but that doesn't mean foreign holidays aren't a luxury.

Supply and demand, nothing to be done, pointless petition!

Any holiday is a luxury.

"But yet again the Tories upt the interests of big business over those of the public, while simultaneously placing more barriers in the way of ordinary people"

I really don't think not interfering in the free market is putting the interests of big business over those of the public.

but one way or the other flowery - along with not interfering in the free market they're meant to be the party against a nanny state interfering with individuals at every level and telling them how to lead their lives and not interfering with the free market. fine, you've been elected by idiots who knew what you were about so be about that. don't be the thing you claimed not to be at the same time and start micro managing people's lives and interfering with their freedoms to raise revenue.

life was a lot more straightforward when labour was left and tory was right - now this fucking cherry picking chameleonesque whatever serves our interest approach means even in voting the concept of 'choice' is utterly hollow.

Don't really follow what you're saying I'm afraid Numpty. Are you saying the government should or shouldn't interfere in the free market? Not sure how not doing so is micro managing people's lives.

Numpty, saying children should attend school is not interfering with the free market. Legislation to get children into school and setting maximum prices are two totally different issues.
The government is saying schooling is vitally important. It is saying children should attend. It is saying attendance is not good enough and childrens education suffers because people go on holiday in term time or keep their children off school for all kinds of other reasons, unrelated to genuine illness. The problem is significant enough to require government to take stronger action to get parents to send their children to school. You may think you know better, but evidence suggests that attendance has a key correlation with success in school. That is why they do it.

i'm saying that along with not interfering with the free market the tory party has also traditionally believed in not having a nanny state that interferes with every aspect of individuals life. it is fine for tories to not interfere with the free market as that is consistent with who they are, what they represent and the policy with which they have been elected. so i have no issue with that side (though i didn't vote for them and never would).

however part of the same package they were elected on was the stance of not being a nanny state and interfering with every aspect of life as they claim is done by the left. that is the part i have issue with.

so no i wouldn't expect tories to interfere with the free market but on the plus side i wouldn't expect them to interfere massively in my life and try constantly to make more money out of me via taxes and fines and legislation. political parties had their pros and cons and one weighed them in order to make an informed vote.

that vote can't be informed if parties no longer have any bloody consistent ideology or approach.

You can still do what you want at the time you want it, you just have to pay extra for it. That sounds pretty free market to me.

Lots of holiday "companies" aren't big business, there are an individual letting out a cottage or a couple running scamp site.

Nope, still confused. This debate is about a petition calling for the government to interfere in the free market. How does their failure to do this mean they are "interfering massively" in people's lives?

I can understand why people might think restrictions on taking children out during term time is interfering in their lives, and I don't know if that's what you're referring to but the petition in question doesn't call for that to be changed.

Chronic non-attendance at yr7 level and above seems to have a correlation with poor GCSE results, yes. Taking a week out a couple of times in primary school doesn't.

Numpty, I'm with you on the cost of holidays, particularly with the people on here who always pop up suggesting camping and UK holidays. If you don't drive, you can hardly go camping. And holiday accommodation in the UK is prohibitively expensive.

The thing that amazes me about MN is that if someone posts that they aren't supportive of a school's (often ridiculous) uniform policy (or pretty much any other aspect of school policy), the vast majority of responses will be of the, 'You must follow the rules. You chose the school so you have to accept the rules,' kind. Yet, rules about your child actually having to attend school are incredibly unfair because they prevent people saving some money on a holiday.

I'm not sure why little Johnny wearing white socks instead of black is seen as a something worth schools cracking down on (often with variations on the slippery slope style of argumentation), but cracking down on term time absences that can be avoided is completely ridiculous and wrong.

It is interesting that so many people insist that regular holidays (wherever you go) are a necessity rather than a luxury. Time off work is a necessity; spending that time somewhere else is not entirely necessary.

You can go camping without a car, but it is massively hard work and I wouldn't recommend it.

especially if you're on your own with kids grennie - hell even getting to the airport with a suitcase and a pushchair was challenge enough when ds was little let alone across the country with tents, food, clothing, nappies, cooking equipment, etc.

Grennie and Numpty, I did actually look into it quite seriously one year - went into a camping shop and everything. I spent a lot of time talking to the assistant and she went from looking doubtful to saying that she didn't really think what I was proposing was possible. And that's from someone whose job is to sell camping stuff!