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Bargain holidays after dip in sales

A DIP in demand for holidays should mean excessively good deals for consumers in the early part of 2007, it was predicted today.

Holiday company Thomas Cook said the overall holiday market for winter 2006-07 holidays was 13% down, while the summer 2007 market was 17% down.

"There will be some very, very good deals in a very aggressive market from Boxing Day until the end of March," said Thomas Cook commercial director Ian Derbyshire.

He added that 2006 had been a very difficult year with bird flu affecting bookings in the early part of the year and England's exit from the soccer World Cup not kick-starting bookings as it normally does.

Mr Derbyshire said: "Many people bought plasma TVs and that was their big summer purchase rather than booking up a holiday.

"Also, we had a very hot summer and then there was the increased security checks at airports and all this affected bookings."

Mr Derbyshire said there was also evidence that an increased number of people were going into independent travel agents and sorting out individual packages rather than buying holidays from the brochures.

Thomas Cook said the popular spots for Britons heading abroad this Christmas included the Canary Islands, Egypt, Morocco and Cuba.

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