Three years ago, the travel industry were in a position whereby they could afford to charge the extortionate rates that they had got away with for decades. After all, we had the disposable income then. But now, things really have changed and this is all as a result of the global recession which knocked everything for six.
However, the travel industry has definitely not done all it can to remain competitive and ensure survival through these hard times. In fact, in many cases, I have even noticed that travel industry products have actually increased in price: be this from airline fares to Holiday rental villas in Italy and other countries.
Of course, Italy has been unrealistically expensive for many years now and unless they accept that they must reduce prices, the country will continue to experience declines in revenue through tourism.
So, we have definitely reached crunch time for many aspects and destinations connected with the travel industry. In order to ride out these austere times, get those accommodation rates and airfares down, or fail to see the main season next year.
All industries can only ever charge prices that the consumer is prepared to pay and when they price themselves out of any market, people will always find other means of doing what they want to do. In this case, tourists are finding cheaper providers and may not necessarily be losing out on quality.
