Thomas Cook forecast record summer but warn hoteliers to keep prices down

Joan Collins THE tour operator group Thomas Cook has made a prediction that the Summer season 2007 will be far better than this year, especially in the Balearics, which has had a historic tourist season. The tour operator added that this will only happen “if Majorcan hotel owners contain their prices and don't put them up to levels which will affect sales. “The increases in prices for 2007 are the most sensitive part of negotiations at the moment”, said Thomas Holtrop, the President of Thomas Cook. He was speaking during the presentation of the group's strategy for the Balearics and Spain. He was accompanied by the head of Thomas Cook in Germany, Peter Frankhauser, and the head of Thomas Cook in the United Kingdom, Manny Fontenla. Peter Frankhauser described this year's season on Majorca and the rest of the Balearic Islands as a “superseason”. He said that Thomas Cook had sent a million tourists to the Balearics (700'000 from Germany and 300'000 from the United Kingdom), which was a rise of 9.7 percent in the German market. They are forecasting a three percent growth for next year's Summer season. However, they made it clear that this growth could be adversely affected by hotel owners' price policy and by the impact of the rise of three percent in VAT in Germany which is due to be imposed from the start of 2007. The three executives all agreed that there is sure to be fierce competition from Turkey. They said that this will be so, “because they will try to recover the tourists lost, due to cases of bird flu, terrorist attacks and other incidents, by lowering their prices”. Turkey's war of prices and aggressive marketing is the principal danger faced by Majorca in 2007, given that it was the Mediterranean's leading destination in 2006. “Hotel owners must maintain the price to quality ratio and not put up their prices by more than five percent, because this year we have reached a limit in demand and capacity”, said Frankhauser, in a warning to the Balearics. The hoteliers were quick to retaliate, and Pedro Cañellas, president of the Majorcan hoteliers federation spoke out in favour of higher prices for next season, even above five per cent, adding that “in a free market, one has to accept that everyone sets the price he wants.”