Partner Article

World Cup woe for travel firms

AS BUSINESSES plan and work around the World Cup, a new study has shown that travel companies have not incurred the boom in trade they expected.

With only 1% of those UK based fans watching the World Cup actually flying out to South Africa, travel companies are not taking in as much football related business as they may have anticipated six months ago.

In fact, at least 5% have chosen to either delay or not take a holiday due to the tournament. Bill MacLeod, partner and retail expert, at PricewaterhouseCoopers in Newcastle said: “This represents a large amount of lost revenue for travel companies, and on top of this 30 per cent of people don’t intend to take a summer holiday at all - irrespective of the football.

“Travel companies and airlines must be prepared for a late bookings rush, offering choice and value for money towards the end of the summer to try and recoup any June trade losses.

“Anecdotally, the first two ash cloud groundings didn’t impact bookings, however after the third round of disruption the travel industry saw a drop off.

“The economic downturn, ash cloud and World Cup will mean the UK domestic holiday and staycation will remain popular this year. While there is a general air of optimism that private sector business travel is returning, the impending Treasury cuts will inevitably target public sector business travel - impacting operators and hoteliers.”

Meanwhile, 7% of people in the North East will watch the FIFA World Cup online and Londoners are twice as likely as their fellow UK football fans to watch via the internet – redrawing the lines of the UK digital divide.

A study has shown only 7%t of the UK expects to watch England matches online, fourteen percent of Londoners think they will view live or repeated matches on the net – compared with seven percent in Yorkshire & Humberside and eleven percent in the North West.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Ruth Mitchell .