[Previous entry: "Heatwave set to 'last until the weekend'"] [Next entry: "Britons Don't Leave Home Without Tea"]
22/06/2005: "Parents Face August Holiday Price Hike"
Parents Face August Holiday Price Hike by Jonathan Prynn, Evening Standard
Families still face huge mark-ups on holiday prices when schools break up for the summer, a new survey says.
Brochure prices rise by as much as 90 per cent in August, despite government pressure on the industry to stop this.
Biggest premiums were on the French Riviera, where a typical three-star hotel bill for a family of four peaked at £1,667 in mid-August but fell to £887 by early September. Holidays in Antigua and Turkey also saw big rises.
Mark-ups are lower for massmarket destinations such as Spain, Cyprus and Greece, where there is more competition. School holiday breaks for Cyprus and Spain were only 15 per cent higher on average.
The survey by Morgan Stanley consumer banking found a British holiday camp would charge 42 per cent more in August than in September.
Holiday companies have reported bumper bookings for this summer, and say pricing is set by supply and demand.
But parents, who now face a £100 fine if they take their children out of school for holidays, complain they are at the mercy of the industry. Ministers would like to see discounts of up to 10 per cent for families who keep the rules.
Short Break Insurance
UK | 3 Days | £5.99 | | 5 Days | £7.99 | | 10 Days | £9.99 | Europe | 5 Days | £9.99 | Middle East | 5 Days | £19.99 | USA | 5 Days | £19.99 |
Only available to ages up to 65 - Click here for info on ages 66-69
Protect Your Money on Holiday
There are some basic measures you can take to ensure that you are not left
penniless in a foreign country;:
- Don't take only one form of money with you, take a mixture of cash and travellers
cheques.
- Don't keep your credit cards, money, passport and travellers cheques all
in one place.
- Leave a credit card at home with family or friends in case of emergency.
- Leave details of your travellers cheques at home with family or friends,
in case you lose your own.
- Be aware that many countries are now using the Euro. You can use Euro coins
from one country in any other country using Euros, they are not limited to
use in each individual country.
- You are still able to use credit cards in countries using the Euros, it
will merely appear on your bill as such.
- Keep credit cards and cash in pockets, rather than bags, when in foreign
countries. The closer it is to you, the less likely it will go astray.
- Ensure that you choose a hotel with a safe you can use, if you intend to leave valuables and money behind you during the day.
- Keep cash in small denominations, avoid pulling out wads of notes in public,
there are always people on the look out for tourists with an evident amount
of money.
|
