What’s the Deal with Package Holidays?

When Thomas Cook, the well-established UK tour operator, collapsed in 2019, it sent shockwaves through the travel world, prompting critics such as Ryanair boss Michael O’Leary to denounce the package holiday market as “screwed” and “over”.

But five years on and it seems that some consumers do still have an appetite for all-inclusive deals. Data from Statista’s Consumer Insights survey shows that in the United Kingdom, just over one in five people said that they had booked this type of vacation in the past year alone. In China and Mexico, package holidays were even more popular, rising to as many as one in four respondents having booked onto one in the 12 months prior to the survey. A much lower share of respondents had gone on a package vacation in the United States, France and Japan.

In addition to convenience of booking and often being a more affordable way to travel, another reason contributing to their continued popularity could be that package holidays can offer broader protection to travelers in some countries.