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Holiday luxury or necessity

By: Milo Sprygada


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Do you think holidays are luxuries or necessities? In the 1800s it was only the rich that could take a holiday. It was very expensive but more importantly there would have been a significant amount of money lost from missing work; you didn''t exactly get paid leave in those days.

Although flying started to broaden the horizons of travellers by making it easier and faster to travel long distances, it was still too expensive for ordinary people. Most middle-class people in the first half of the 20th century simply packed up caravans and went camping and working class people were lucky to get time off.

Holidays started to become more accessible as the cost of flying decreased and in the 1950s and 1960s there was a new way to travel available to all. Package holidays were launched to locations such as a Greece and Spain.

Package holidays declined in the 1970s, as the fuel crisis caused flight prices to rise. People returned to camping, but this time in VW Campervans and tents. With unemployment at 11.9% and company earnings declining by 35%, the 1980s recession led to a rise in package holidays again as people were forced to look for the cheapest holiday options available.

Then the boom in prosperity and wealth up to 2007 meant people had more money to travel. Packages to Spain and Greece were seen as boring; backpacking took off on a mass scale and the independent DIY travel sector took off.

Coupled with this was the growth in low-cost carriers and prior to 2007 there were ten a penny. You could even fly to New York for under ?200, return. Add to this the development of online tour agents, hotel direct websites and online car hire operators and there was little need for the traditional package holiday tour operator.

However, the biggest post-war recession put a stop on this. Unemployment continues to rise, inflation is at 3.7% and economic output is trying to wander into the black. With a struggling economy and little job security people want even more value for money out of a holiday.

So, package holidays, and more precisely all-inclusive holidays, are making a strong come back. If you book an all-inc break you know everything is paid for up front, allowing you to budget and not over spend. Seeing as you can get a four-star all-inclusive holiday in Turkey right now for just over ?200 it is easy to see why this is such a recession growth sector.

Article Source: http://depositarticles.com/

Milo Sprygada is a freelance travel writer with a love of exotic travel destinations. They recommend Thomas Cook for all inclusive holidays.

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