EXCLUSIVE: The best travel bet according to Perry

The Aussie dollar is a hot topic, and a big player in the travel game.

But with a number of destinations pegged as ‘too expensive’ for Aussie travellers, Cox and Kings’ ceo Damian Perry believes Europe is the best place to get bang for your buck.

Against the Euro, the Aussie dollar is holding strong, and when comparing product prices overseas today to last year, Europe looks like the best option.

While the product pricing in the US and UK has risen 25% and 18% respectively from August 2014 to July 2015, European prices have risen less than 3%.

And Perry says this is key for driving new travel trends, particularly with Europe Earlybird sales coming up.

“The greatest challenge for the travel industry at the moment is to decouple the dramatic 23% currency change in the USD /AUD from a minor Euro / AUD differentiation of less than 3%,” he said.

“Often travellers from Australia benchmark their spending capacity to the exchange rates of the GBP and USD. Both of these currencies have had dramatic changes of late and the follow-on impact is, of course, the more conservative buyer behaviour.

“However; this minor change in the Euro to the AUD represents the best market opportunity and greatest value for travellers currently. In addition to the ongoing competitive flight offers in the market Europe alone can deliver the best offers to travellers.

“Smart travellers are shortening their booking to travel period to take advantage of these offers and travelling early as we are seeing an abnormally high late season Europe bookings. Our core programs such as Greece and Turkey, France and Italy are growing strong with an overwhelming request for 2016 Europe pricing.”

“To support our Australian market our Spain program is honouring all early bookings to Spain on 2015 prices which is assisting that particular portfolio.

In addition to the core Europe program we are seeing overwhelming demand for our new and broader range of Bentours Scandinavian program. Our new pricing structure is delivering best to market rates on this region including popular product such as the Hurtigruten range supplied by Bentours.

“The new pricing structure and launch of our first in a series of 2 Bentours brochures to market, industry incentives; but primarily best to market rates are delivering month on month growth beyond 50%.

“It’s a very exciting time for Europe.”

Advertise with us

Email the Travel Weekly team at traveldesk@travelweekly.com.au

@australia cox and kings europe uk usa