Peer-to-peer travel money provider WeSwap comments on the future of the package holiday after a decade of drastic travel industry change
As we come to the end of another year and another decade, the travel industry will be reflecting on what some may regard as a tough year for the travel and tourism sector. In 2019 alone, the world’s oldest travel firm, Thomas Cook, collapsed leaving more than 500,000 holidaymakers stranded abroad and Ryanair boss, Michael O’Leary, has been reported saying that the holiday package market is now finished.
Despite this, many of budget airlines such as Tui and Jet2 Holidays still run package holiday services successfully. Not only this, but easyJet have recently launched the start of their own package holidays, attempting to fill the void which was left by Thomas Cook. As we approach the start of 2020, it seems that the travel sector seems to be moving away from package holiday experiences, how can the booking experience still remain personalised and efficient?
Rob Stross, CMO of WeSwap, comments on the future of the package holiday: “Despite recent events, we don’t feel that the package holiday market is ‘over’. We do think it’s evolving though. The numbers of UK holidaymakers taking package holidays has held steady in recent years, but, with our users at least, we’re starting to see more of an interest in personalised travel experiences.
The tours and experiences market is worth around £150bn annually and we’re starting to look at expanding our portfolio to tap into that. Over the next five years, we’re going to be taking advantage of advancements in technology and start using unique user data to offer holiday personalisation for our customers.”
