As end-of-year travel draws near, South African travel agents have reported a particularly disappointing high season.
The consensus is that a shift has taken place in the industry this December holiday season, and some agents are seeing an alarming lack of bookings.
“I don’t have a single December package booked for this year. Not one. And it’s the first time in ten years. I don’t know why,” said travel agent A (who preferred to remain anonymous). She said the problem began around April or May this year, when bookings for December usually start.
While travel agent A hypothesised that this lack of travel during peak season might be due to the American elections or global conflicts around the world, she noted that prices were simply “ridiculously expensive”.
Travel agent B agreed. “I’ve been an ITC for 20 years and I just find that a lot of my repeat clients that would normally travel every December said ‘no’ this year. It’s just got so expensive, they’re going to skip this year and do something local, and I don’t do local,” she said. Even for clients that booked in advance, prices were still unaffordable for many, she added.
“You can actually see it if you look at the flights that are available. I changed one of my client’s flights from December 3 to later and the flights were all open. I had another client booking to go to Australia on December 22 and there were lots of flights available.”
In previous years, this would have been impossible, according to this agent. Travel agent A added that there were still seats available for Mauritius, traditionally one of the top sellers for the December season, as well as domestic flights.
This price hike has mainly impacted families going on December holidays, according to agent B. “You’re always going to have your solo travellers or your professional person who’s got money in the bank, but for families it really hits them hard.”
Travel agent C said she had managed to weather the storm by specialising in a particular niche, but there were definitely fewer bookings than usual for the high season. “Let me say, there’s a lot less money around with more expectations.”
She said she had seen an increase in people who were on the fence as to whether or not they could afford to travel in December this year, and these types of clients were choosing to skip their December holiday plans.
Travel agent B said the dynamic was making the travel industry a highly competitive environment to work in at the moment. “It’s creating this situation where people shop around from five agents at a time and if one’s R100 cheaper, they’re going to go with that one. I’m very fortunate to have repeat clients and years behind my back, but there are a lot of agents out there that are new in the industry so when they come in, they're cut-throat. They’re willing to do whatever they need to do to get the booking.”
Travel agent A said the lack of bookings, and therefore a lack of income, was spoiling the Christmas season. “It’s not helping us feel festive. It’s not helping us agents feel relaxed. I haven’t even bothered to put up a tree.”
