At Adido, we wanted to explore things further, and specifically, to see if the same trend applied to online bookings and searches rather than those made in-person. We also wanted to determine what opportunities have opened up for agents, and where they should proceed with caution.

For starters, despite the overall findings, we can’t see a notable shift in online lates interest for traditional overseas favourites such as Spain, Greece and Turkey. The market has evidently become much tougher, with cost of living no doubt playing a part in would-be holidaymakers’ decision making.

But interestingly, the opposite is true for domestic holidays. There was a clear upward shift taking breaks closer to home, with popular staycation-related searches up by around 30%. Again, cost of living will have played a part. The early hot weather spikes in the UK, combined with the summer temperatures overseas, may have too.

This is consistent with our data across the year. In fact, we recently highlighted how online searches for UK holidays now regularly exceed those for overseas getaways, whereas previously there was little difference between the two. Clearly, this staycation demand is showing no signs of slowing down.

Importantly, one area where we didn’t notice a discrepancy was in the luxury sector, those customers spending more than £5,000pp on average.

There was no obvious upturn in demand from customers with bigger budgets and shorter lead times, so for agents operating at the higher-end of the market, don’t expect to see any notable changes for the foreseeable future. The luxury market remains consistent both in terms of searches and booking rates online compared with 2019 levels.

So what does this all mean for the trade? Well the overseas online lates market doesn’t look fertile ground, and with reduced commission due to lower price points, agents should weigh that up accordingly.

However, there may be more interest in booking lates on the high street. Agents should take the time to see where the demand is coming from, and if it centres around in-person enquiries and interest, focus their marketing efforts accordingly.

It’s also worth keeping in mind customers may simply have contacted an agent direct, rather than shopping around online, if they’d had positive previous experiences and an informed understanding of up-front costs.

For agents who sell staycations, it’s well worth investing resource in covering all lead times. Staycations are here to stay, and there are clearly opportunities to more business during lates periods, particularly as it may still be relatively uncharted territory.

But perhaps don’t invest in luxury lates; the chances are that these high-end customers are not going to be interested in making last-minute decisions. Taking time to nurture relationships and recommending a wider range of holiday options, at a pace to suit them, are still key to driving sales and enquiries.

Instead, September and October are much more important periods to focus on, as customers will be thinking about their new year, spring and summer getaways.

As always, it is critical to understand your customers’ requirements and which marketing channels brought them to your door. Wherever you can, make a conscious effort to keep tabs on your enquiries, and before further investment, do the analysis to ensure any money spent is going to give you the best returns.

Understanding what happened over the summer months and how external factors can impact your business will, as always, put you in the best possible position moving forward.
 
Andy Headington is chief executive of travel specialist digital marketing agency Adido.