Speaking at TTG’s Agenda 2024 Winter Breakfast, in partnership with PwC, Blue Bay Travel chief executive Alistair Rowland said that while so-called "cyber month" of November "dragged on a bit", it had come on the radar as a key holiday sales period.
"Up until last year, I don’t think it had an impact in the travel industry, but it’s certainly a relevant promotion now,” he said, after Black Friday fell on 29 November and Cyber Monday on 2 December.
Hazel McGuire, Intrepid Travel general manager UK and Ireland, agreed. She told guests Intrepid had not engaged in cyber promotions until 2022, and that its importance had "grown exponentially".
Despite the success of the pre-Christmas promotions, the panel were optimistic about a successful traditional peaks period in 2025, with McGuire highlighting the historic resonance of January sales when “people expect those deals”.
However, she stressed peaks 2025 wouldn’t be “plain sailing”, and that travel companies must be prepared to “work for it”.
"Peaks will be peaks," said Rowland in agreement. "They will slightly flatter and longer, but certainly there. It’s so engrained.
"I sense a bit less of a race to the bottom, [there will] still be a lot of online vouchering and discounting, but I sense it will be narrower than last year."
Discounting caution
The panel cautioned against discounting, with PwC’s hospitality, travel and leisure leader Rick Jones warning about the difference between a “promotion” and simply “discounting” for periods such as the cyber weekend
Asked for his hopes for 2025, Rowland said he wanted to see “prices nudge up a bit and discounting nudge down a bit”.
During the breakfast, Eleanor Scott, partner at Strategy&, part of PwC, said it was a mixed bag when it came to consumers’ confidence in, and spending intentions for, travel.
Scott revealed seven in 10 consumers surveyed by TTG and PwC in November said they intended to spend at least the same – if not more – on travel in 2025 compared with this year.
However, she warned there was a sizeable minority (17%) who were still unsure which direction their spend on travel will go.
Scott added that among those consumers expecting to spend more on their 2025 holidays, more than a third (35%) said they felt it would be due to the cost of their holidays going up.
Others indicated they would be taking more holidays, or “looking for ways to trade up”, such as by taking longer breaks.
But Scott also highlighted a similar “polarisation of booking periods” in the coming year, also seen in 2024, where significant proportions of travellers were either booking early for summer 2025, “or holding on” for lates.
“The indications are that we might see a similar double-peak in bookings for next year, as we did this year,” Scott told the audience.
