Major businesses and niche operators in the holiday
1. Major businesses and niche
operators in the holiday market,
including budget airlines.
- By Hifza
2. Budget airlines
An airline that generally has lower fares and fewer comforts.
Budget airlines usually land at and takeoff from secondary airports, do not
provide inflight meals or refreshments, and may not even offer numbered
seat allocation.
Some examples of low cost airlines in the UK – Ryanair, Wizzair, Thomas Cook,
Jet2.
In 2013, amongst the 93 million passengers who started their journey at a UK
airport last year, 52% were flying with budget carriers, according to statistics
from travel industry technology company Amadeus.
3. Tour Operators
A tour operator buys, or owns in some cases, a high volume of travel services
across carriers, accommodation and services. These services are then
assembled into packages for purchase by the consumer. The packages are sold
via travel agents or through the phone and internet.
E.g. of tour operators in the UK - Thomas Cook, Cox and Kings Travel, Audley
etc
5. Travel Agents/Agencies
A travel agent builds the business around their retail space, traditionally
selling standard packages or tailoring them.
People over 65 are the most likely to book a holiday abroad with a travel
company or agent (45%), booking in this way is most popular in the North East
where 50% of holiday makers used this method.
For a UK break, those aged 25-34 and 75+ are most likely to book via a travel
company or agent (26%).
6. Annual turnover of travel agents and tour
operators in the United Kingdom (UK)
from 2010 to 2016* (in million GBP)
7. Brokers & Flight Consolidators
The term 'broker' means a company that buys or has access to a high volume of
accommodation places. These are sold on to tour operators, tour organisers
and others.
The term 'flight consolidator' is a company that buys a high volume of
flights from one supplier or a high volume of services across many suppliers
and then these are sold on to tour operators, tour organisers and others.
Becoming a broker or flight consolidator requires the network of service
providers or a network of tour operators where the broker is buying a large
number of services from one supplier and selling them on to tour operators in
smaller numbers.
