Package tour

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
Not to be confused with The Package Tour.

A package tour, package vacation, or package holiday comprises

charter airline, and may also include travel between areas as part of the holiday. Package holidays are a form of product bundling
.

Package holidays are organised by a

travel agent
. Some travel agents are employees of tour operators, others are independent.

History

Organised tours

The first organised tours dated back to

Thomas Cook & Son
(commonly called Thomas Cook or simply "Cook's"), grew to become one of the largest and most well known travel agents before being nationalised in 1948.

With the gradual decline of visits to British

Second World War, Thomas Cook & Son began promoting foreign holidays (particularly Italy, Spain and Switzerland) in the early 1950s. Information films were shown at town halls throughout Britain. However they made a costly decision by not going into the new form of cheap holidays which combined the transport and accommodation arrangements into a single 'package'. The company went further into decline and were only rescued by a consortium buy-out on 26 May 1972.[2]

Group tours

Gatwick airport and Corsica in 1950, and organised the first package holiday to Palma in 1952, Lourdes in 1953, and the Costa Brava and Sardinia in 1954. In addition, the amendments made in Montreal to the Convention on International Civil Aviation on 14 June 1954 was very liberal to Spain, allowing impetus for mass tourism using charter planes.[citation needed
]

By the late 1950s and 1960s, these cheap package holidays — which combined flight, transfers, and accommodation — provided the first chance for most people in the

Luton Airport in 1962. Despite opening up mass tourism to Crete and the Algarve in 1970, the package tour industry declined during the 1970s. On 15 August 1974, the industry was shaken by the collapse of the second-largest tour operator, Court Line, which operated under the brand names of Horizon and Clarksons. Nearly 50,000 tourists were stranded overseas and a further 100,000 people faced the loss of booking deposits.[citation needed
]

In 2005 a growing number of consumers were avoiding package holidays and were instead travelling with

TUI UK following in second place. Under these umbrella brands are different holiday operators catering to different markets, such as Club 18-30, traveleze Jet2CityBreaks and Jet2Villas.[needs update
]

The trend for package holiday bookings saw a comeback in 2009, as customers sought greater financial security in the wake of a number of holiday and flight companies going bust, and as the hidden costs of 'no-frills' flights increased. Coupled with the search for late holidays as holidaymakers left booking to the last moment, this led to a rise in consumers booking package holidays.[3]

Dynamic packaging

Main article: Dynamic packaging

Dynamic packaging is a method that is becoming increasingly used in package holiday booking procedures that enables consumers to build their own package of flights, accommodation, and rental car instead of a pre-defined packages.[4]

Dynamic Packaging allows guests to create their own vacation, similar to a private or custom tour. This method allows guests to use a company's itinerary or create their own to allow for more flexible options while using an agency's services. [5]

See also

References

  1. ^ "History". Thomas Cook. Retrieved 2009-07-01.
  2. ^ "Thomas Cook packaged and sold". BBC. 26 May 1972. Retrieved 26 May 2005.
  3. ^ Britten, Nick (2009-08-07). "Package Holiday Makes a Comeback". The Daily Telegraph. London. Retrieved 7 August 2009.
  4. ^ "Travel Agents Could Lose Out in the Dynamic Packaging Battle". First Conferences Ltd. 2005. Archived from the original on 6 February 2005. Retrieved 19 January 2005.
  5. ^ "Private Japan Tours". Japan Deluxe Tours. 2018. Archived from the original on 6 February 2005. Retrieved 12 July 2018.
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Package_tour&oldid=1179630212"