An analysis of summer sun tourists - outbound package holidays ...

Summer Sun Tourism 109
which they were travelling, while 11.0% had been there only once before. It suggests that there is considerable
fluidity at the level of the individual with regard to choice of resort. This might seem to contradict the
perceived image of the package holiday-maker as being conservative and the fact that the range of destinations
of Irish air-charter traffic has not changed dramatically over the years (Gillmor, 1996). The implication
may be, however, that while there is a tendency to return to the same destination areas and the same types of
resort, individuals do not tend to return to the same resorts.
The fortnight package was the standard holiday, with 80.7% of respondents embarking on a holiday of
two weeks duration and 14.3% staying away for one week only. The most common type of accommodation
involved in the package was a self-catering apartment (63.0%) while 26.7% of respondents were staying in a
hotel. Other types of accommodation mentioned included bed and breakfast establishments and guesthouses.
One-third of respondents reported that their holiday had been sold with at least one extra feature.
These included the provision of certain meals, free excursions, transfers to/from Dublin Airport, a hire car,
sports facilities and vouchers for free drinks. The mean reported total cost of the holiday was IR£418 with a
standard deviation of IR£112; the mean cost per day was IR£33.26 with a standard deviation of IR£12.65.
Table 2: Number of respondents travelling to each destination.
Destination Number %
Canaries 47 15.7
Greece 44 14.7
Balearics 1 36 12.0
Portugal 30 10.0
Turkey 2 27 9.0
Cyprus 2 20 6.7
Bulgaria 3 18 6.0
Florida 4 18 6.0
Spain (mainland) 1 12 4.0
Morocco 3 12 4.0
Tunisia 3 11 3.7
Malta 4 10 3.3
Jersey 4 7 2.3
Other destinations 4 8 2.7
Total 300 100.0
Note: For the purposes of hypothesis testing, destinations with the same superscript were amalgamated.
Booking the Holiday
Booking through a travel agent accounted for 83.7% of all holidays, while the remaining 16.3% had been
booked direct with the tour operator. This underlines the importance of the travel agent as an intermediary
within the package holiday industry; there are sales outlets throughout the country offering a wide range of
holiday products. Yet, it is the tour operators, and especially the large ones, which determine the holidays on
offer; 73.8% of all holidays recorded in the survey were organised by the four largest operators and subsequent
takeovers mean that two British-owned companies now control over 80% of the Irish air-charter summer
holiday market.
The length of time elapsing between booking the holiday and departing ranged from seven months to one
week, with a modal value of five months and a mean of 3.18 months. The data indicate that, while the majority
booked a considerable period in advance, there was also a significant minority who booked just prior to
departure. The results suggest that the release of brochures had a significant impact on booking patterns; the