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This article focuses on the impact of competition in the foreign holiday market on British tour operators, as of July 1989. Contrary to the British insular and conservative image, Great Britain is a nation of inveterate travellers. Its propensity for foreign travel is higher than all other developed countries'. In 1988, around 20% of the total population took foreign holidays, compared to under 5% in the U.S. and Japan. It is allegedly arguable whether such enthusiasm for travel preceded the development of the package tour industry on a large scale, or was a product of it. Apparently, the root of both was the advent of cheap jet air travel in the early 1960s. Worldwide, leisure-related journeys account for some 60% of scheduled international air travel, equivalent to 130 million passengers a year. Charter airlines add a further 90 million to such a figure. Revenue per passenger kilometer over the past decade has grown at a steady 7% a year, a figure which is projected, at least by British Airways, to continue at much the same rate until the end of the century. Figures for flights leaving Great Britain tell the same story, with growth rates over the past decade averaging over 10% a year, though such may moderate in the 1990s in favor of land-based travel, with the opening of the Channel Tunnel. |
