What does future hold for UK travel agents and tour operators?
UK outbound tourism expenditure, excluding expenditure on travel to and from the UK, totalled £34.41bn in 2006, according to a new report. As per Research and Markets’ “Travel Agents & Overseas Tour Operators Market Report 2007”, expenditure on domestic tourism, excluding day trips, was considerably lower, at around £21bn. In the same year, the turnover of travel agents and tour operators totalled £18.91bn, equivalent to 34.2% of total tourism expenditure by UK residents. Although this report deals with the UK market for travel agents and overseas tour operators as a whole, its focus is primarily on those that serve the leisure-travel market. An official release stated: “The UK package-tour market is experiencing a challenge brought about by competition from various quarters. The growth of residential tourism has meant that, rather than take a package tour to a favourite destination, travellers are using scheduled airlines, including services provided by low-cost carriers, to travel to
