The incentive to book holidays during the Black Friday (24 November) and Cyber Monday (27 November) sales period last month was also boosted by the availability of more “genuine” travel deals, according to consumer champion Which?

Anthony Blackmore, director at Cruise365, said the cruise specialist agency had seen a “general uplift” in sales during the week running up to Black Friday, helped by several cruise lines such as Celebrity Cruises, Princess Cruises and Norwegian Cruise Line running what he described as “proper campaigns” this year.

“We’ve seen a big impact and increased sales without having to spend big ourselves,” he told TTG. “There’s definitely been a positive bounce and we’re seeing a lot of quick, instant bookings. We’re very pleased with how it’s going.

“There have been a lot of genuine offers from cruise lines this year – those companies that have put in the effort to have a proper campaign are doing well.”

Backing up this trend of improved holiday discounts is Which? research showing that 88% of last year’s Black Friday travel deals were cheaper than two weeks after the promotion ended, while two-thirds of prices were better than the following January. This was “in sharp contrast” to previous years when most holidays were “unlikely to represent genuine deals”.

“This suggests consumers may want to consider looking at Black Friday holiday deals this year – a contrast to other retailers and service providers, where deals are less likely to stack up,” added Which?

While Black Friday offers can help stimulate instant bookings, they also play a part in getting consumers to start thinking about booking holidays post-Christmas, a period when the festive season traditionally tends to dominate their purchasing mindset.

Kelly Cookes, Advantage Travel Partnership chief commercial officer, said: “We work closely with our business partners to promote Black Friday, and across the membership we do tend to see an uplift in sales.

“However, while the activity is, of course, geared towards simulating demand, it also plays a big part in our pre-peaks prep to get people thinking about their plans for the next year.”

But not every agent thinks Black Friday is a big deal for travel sales. Richard Slater, from Henbury Travel, said they had not “gone overboard” in promoting offers this year.

“We didn’t have anybody knocking on the door because it was Black Friday,” he said. “We did put out a few offers but haven’t spent any money on it – it’s generated one or two bookings. We do a lot on social media anyway, but we don’t go overboard on Black Friday itself – it’s often stuff that they can’t sell.”

Hanbury said some Black Friday offers from travel companies could be “confusing” for customers who simply wanted to know the overall price. “If you take a sector like river cruise, the offers are so confusing,” he added. “It’s often things like half-price on the second passenger, but people really just want to know what the price is.”

Even some of those agents who have seen strong Black Friday bookings have had to tweak their messaging in recent years. “We don’t even use the term Black Friday in our e-shots,” said Cruise365’s Blackmore.

“We noticed about seven years ago that we got quite a high level of unsubscribes if we used Black Friday, so now we just concentrate on mentioning the brand and the savings. Cruise consumers love a bargain, even if they don’t like it being called Black Friday.

“The buzz creates a lot of interest and people certainly like having a look at the offers. There’s been an instant bounce and it will be interesting to see how long it goes on for – we usually see it go back to normal by the start of December.”

Black Friday may seem like a lot of hype, but it appears to be having a positive impact for the industry – especially with more genuine deals around. Even just getting consumers to think about their 2024 holidays at this time of year has to be some sort of achievement.