Early USA bookings point way to brighter year

Visit USA tour operator members are countering the seemingly endless diet of gloomy economic news with some very encouraging reports of 2011 booking trends. With the UK economy contracting by 0.5 per cent in the last quarter of 2010 - once again raising the spectre of a ‘double-dip recession’ - rising inflation and increased Air Passenger Duty (APD), you might expect US holiday bookings to be stagnant. Not so, according to several US specialist tour operators.

Stateside specialist USAirtours said it started the year with enquiries up by more than 25 per cent and bookings up by almost 20 per cent. “Villas continue to outsell hotel holidays in Orlando and we are seeing strong demand for pre-planned fly-drive holidays to California,” said company founder and CEO Guy Novik.

“Demand for cruise and stay itineraries is particularly strong for sailings from Florida and two new itineraries that include ranching and Amtrak are also selling well.” For Jetset North America sales are standing up well against other long haul destinations and currently outselling the Far East, Southern Africa and Australasia, said product manager Jonathan Ditte. “Our bookings have been fairly evenly spread throughout 2011, showing that clients are still booking in advance,” he said.

The West Coast and Las Vegas have started strongly, which Ditte partly attributes to Virgin Atlantic’s new Manchester-Las Vegas service. “Hawaii sales have also been brisk, as have city breaks for autumn and winter 2011… New York breaks are still popular, but we are also booking more people to Washington and Philadelphia, combining with New York on fly-and-rail holidays,” he added.

Bon Voyage Travel and Tours’ Phil Newcombe also claimed that North America bookings for 2011 were strong. “The western and southern states are leading the way for us – particularly Hawaii,” he said.

The operators’ comments lend weight to a recent U.S. Department of Commerce-sponsored United Kingdom (UK) Travel Trade Barometer, which reported that for the first quarter of 2011 the majority of UK tour operators (67%) projected higher bookings to the United States compared to the same period in 2010. Value rather than price is a key factor for US-bound customers, added USAirtours’ Novik.

“Customers are trading up to four- and five-star hotels in all destinations, providing they are attractively priced, and we predict that the tailor-made market will continue to perform well throughout 2011.” said Novik.