Tour operators may well be praying for a German victory this afternoon, in the hope that if England are knocked out of the World Cup, it will kick-start a frenzy of summer holiday bookings.
Last year, as the pound and the euro neared parity, the best deals were found in the long-haul sector, but this summer there are tens of thousands of hotel rooms sitting empty across the Med. The euro is in turmoil, sterling has crept to an 18-month high, and with football fans glued to their sofas, operators have stacks of unsold stock that they can shift only by slashing prices.
Last Monday, Thomson’s cheapest deal was a last-minute week at the Barras Apartments, in Corfu, for £141 — down from £436. By Thursday, the same break was available for £132 — a saving of nearly 70% on the brochure price. Thomas Cook’s current best deal is 53% lower than list price.
It’s not just the big boys who are clearing the shelves of unsold stock, either. The Greece specialist Ionian Island Holidays has halved the prices of last-minute villa holidays on the islands of Skopelos and Alonissos.
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Some Greek hotels have responded to the slump by dropping rates by up to 15%, but Dimitri Patrikios, a director of Ionian Island Holidays, says villas offer the best value. “Where operators have contracted with owners to fill properties throughout the season, they will be forced to sell them off at cost or lower to minimise losses,” he said. “It’s great for the consumer, but not so good for the tour operator.”
While Greece continues to offer the best value for a bargain break — on many islands restaurant prices have dropped by about 20% — there are also unprecedented deals on offer in Spain, the Balearics and Turkey, where optimistic holiday companies overstocked accommodation in anticipation of an as yet unrealised Bodrum boom.
Meanwhile, Siblu has cut the price of a week at a French holiday park by up to 50% — a week beginning July 17 at Les Sables du Midi is down from £1,130pp to £575 — and French Freedom Holidays has sliced up to 70% off pre-school-holiday stays, with a night in a mobile home on the Ty Nadan park, in Brittany, down from £117 to £35.
It seems, however, that wherever you’re heading, the bargains will last only while Rooney and friends stay in the competition. Co-operative Holidays says it expects to sell 15,000 holidays the day England win/go out.