New for 2009
As Christmas approaches and 2008 draws to a close, its time to look forward to 2009 and what is potentially in store for the travel industry.
The past 12 months have seen the demise of a number of airlines throughout the world and a number of holiday companies. The biggest single failure was that of XL, the UK’s 3rd largest operator. When it collapsed at the end of the summer, around 80,000 passengers were stranded abroad and the following operation to repatriate Britons, was the biggest since the rescue of the British Expeditionary Force from Dunkirk back in 1940.
The squeeze was really felt by airlines as oil hit 147USD per barrel in the summer but it has since fallen back to around 40USD and many airlines have reduce or removed the fuel supplements they added to fares at the time. However, as the world falls into recession, 2009 looks like it will be tough for the travel industry. That said, people will still take their holidays and rightly so. What may change is that people search harder for the bargains.
From 2009, this will be the home of the Explorer Travel Blog which is currently at on Blogspot – www.bbmexplorer.blogspot.com. The posts are also duplicated on blogs on MySpace and WAYN but due to time overheads, this will stop so the only place to keep up to date with our blog will be right here. You can receive new posts by email, just simply subscribe from the link on the right hand side bar. You will also find our specialist destination websites along here along with our new online flight and hotel booking website – www.explorerdirect.co.uk.
In the meantime, Explorer Travel would like to take the opportunity to thank you for your support during 2008 and we hope to look after you again in 2009. We would like to wish you and all your families a very Merry Christmas and prosperous 2009.
