There is always a price at which the mass-market books late holidays (two to three weeks before departure) and currently that seems to be at around £150 to £180 per person for one week including flights, transfers and self-catering accommodation. These prices do not only apply to Greece but also to Turkey, Spain and Portugal. The travelling public should not, however, believe that at that price the tour operator is making a profit. On the contrary, at such a price the operator is losing several hundred pounds and is only selling at such a low rate because it is better to earn something rather than have a flight seat and what we call ‘committed’ accommodation (accommodation which the operator pays for whether it is filled or not), go empty.

To give you an idea, the actual cost of a charter flight seat from Gatwick to Corfu, including airport taxes and fuel surcharges, is in the region of £260 return. So, you can see the scale of the loss when operators are selling at £150 which, remember, includes accommodation, transfers and all other overseas costs.

Sunvil has not changed its policy as a result of all the exaggerated reports in the press concerning a return to the drachma and the imminent collapse of the Eurozone. Sunvil confidently believes that Greece will remain within the Eurozone and the Eurozone will not collapse. Traditionally, for very late bookings, Sunvil sells at about £340 to £360 per person self-catering for a week which is a fair price for a good product and we believe that selling for almost nothing, as many other operators do, does enormous harm to the industry and to the destination countries because it devalues and debases them.

Noel Josephides

Managing Director