Prices going up, so let’s have a holiday

Aug 19 2008 by Our Correspondent, Huddersfield Daily Examiner

LET’S be honest ... the past year has been terrible for many families.

Rising food prices, petrol and diesel prices at a record high and then, a couple of weeks ago, staggering increases announced in gas and electricity tariffs. All of these are in addition to increased mortgage costs.

And to make matters worse the weather outlook is gloomy ... and there are still nearly two weeks to go before the kids go back to school! Hardly the sort of conditions to promote the “feel good” factor.

Yet despite the gloom and doom many families have decided to try to forget it all and not forsake the family holiday.

This summer though, as a recent survey by LateRooms.com has shown, more than half of us have decided to stay in the UK for our summer holidays.

For many reasons, such as those referred to earlier, our traditional seaside resorts are experiencing something of a comeback as parents opt to take their children to the places they visited themselves long before the days of cheap air travel.

Nostalgia would seem to be the main reason for this switch. Of the resorts that the respondents wanted to re-visit Torquay came top of the list. Over half of those surveyed stated that they would like to return there.

Cream teas, deck chairs and (presumably) posh fish and chips were some of the attractions of the Fawlty Towers resort. Other highly placed ‘must re-visit’ locations included St Ives, Bournemouth, Weymouth and the Norfolk coast.

The only northern resort in the top 10 was Scarborough, which one in five respondents said they would like to go back to.

My own recent survey of the LateRooms.com website confirmed the survey’s findings. For the last week of the school holidays, August 23 to 30, there was still hotel accommodation available in Torquay, mainly after the bank holiday, but at a price.

The same was also true for Scarborough, although the supply of hotels there is more limited.

In contrast, Blackpool, which was not one of the respondents’ favourites for a return visit, had lots of hotel and guest house rooms still available and at a fraction of the price of those still left in Torquay.

Before you dash off to the coast though, perhaps you ought to bear in mind that all the signs in the travel market would seem to suggest that the days of cheap travel have ended.

This next week, for families, could well be the last chance of an overseas break in the sun at a reasonable price.

But why?

European air fares have already risen because of increased airport landing charges and the doubling of air passenger duty to £40. The biggest other factor is that the price of jet fuel has doubled in the last year and forecasts are that increases will persist.

Even so, some cheap flights are still available for the last full week of the school holidays.

When I did my own website survey there was still good availability on flights from Manchester to Alicante on Saturday, August 23. Five low- cost carriers still had seats to offer on skyscanner.net, starting from about £65 per person. The return journey though was much more expensive; the cheapest return flight for the following Saturday was nearly £150 with Monarch, leaving Alicante at 22.30. Not the best of flight times for a family.

Benidorm, which is down the road from Alicante, may not be everyone’s favourite resort but hotel accommodation is cheap, certainly by UK prices. There were hundreds, if not thousands, of rooms still available in the resort’s landmark concrete block hotels.

Typically, for a hotel room close to Levante beach and in a complex with an outdoor pool, indoor pool and stacks of entertainment, the cost for full board was from around £40 per person per night.

Cheap by our standards, even allowing for the depreciated pound against the euro.

For a family of four, two adults and two children, the full cost of this one week seemingly low cost holiday will still be around £2,000 and that excludes the numerous San Miguel’s, Coca Cola’s, ice creams and so on, unless you opt for the famous Benidorm ‘all inclusive’ deals that some hotels offer.

At least the weather will be guaranteed.

So where does this leave us? What is certain is that, if fuel prices remain high, if the pound stays weak and the UK economy stagnates the bargain overseas holidays that many of us have got used to will be a thing of the past.

Air travel as well as other forms of transport in 2009 will cost more than at present.

It may hurt now to pay at the supermarket till, when you fill up the car or when you have to pay for gas and electricity. Next year it will really hurt when you try to book a holiday.

So with just one week left, go for it. Even if it has to be Blackpool!