WHEN it comes to the Football World Cup, the word on the street in the travel industry is that people stay at home to watch their team compete in the World Cup finals. When the team is knocked out they go away.
Now JacTravel, the business to business hotel accommodation wholesaler and provider of inbound travel services, has validated the hypothesis with an analysis of hotel bookings in the Spanish and English markets. It looked at hotel bookings made by its five largest clients in each market in the week before and the week after the national side was eliminated from the World Cup. JacTravel’s analysis found that in the UK bookings surged by 75 per cent in the week after England’s exit; in Spain bookings surged by 54 per cent. JacTravel provides accommodation on a wholesale basis to many large holiday retailers such as Onhotels.com in the UK and Destinia in Spain. Rob Turner – CEO, Onhotels.com said: “We’ve certainly noted a silver lining to England’s poor World Cup and early exit. Bookings leapt forward 20 per cent from June 19, with Spanish resorts being the most obvious beneficiary. The summer holiday season is definitely underway.”Mónica E. Prieto, Destinia’s commercial director, said: “On the June 26 - four days after the Spanish team got disqualified from the World Cup, flight sales jumped by 40 per cent from the competition days. The jump in hotel sales came during the next few days. There are many factors that could explain these good figures, like, for example, the beginning of the high season, but we also believe that Spain’s early exit from the tournament might have influenced some travellers’ booking behaviour. The fact is that 2014 sales are better overall than last year’s.”JacTravel, CEO, Terry Williamson, concluded: “This is a phenomenon we have seen for every World Cup I can remember. Holidaymakers come in to the market when their team is knocked out and our numbers clearly show that happening.”