Latin America airfare grounded as Europe sustains its popularity
Mercedes Méndez has been booking flights to Latin America for 24 years, but the deals she’s finding for some destinations this year amaze her.
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“I have better fares than ever for the Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico and Guatemala,” she said last week, taking a quick break at her Elmwood Avenue agency, Méndez Travel. Where a round-trip flight to Santo Domingo might have cost $550 to $600 last year, she said, now it’s averaging $385. Puerto Rico is going for $259. Guatemala is down to $399, from about $500.
Customers are snatching up the deals, Méndez said, keeping her plenty busy.
“They’re buying,” she said. “Whole families are traveling.”
For Méndez in particular, a big part of the upsurge has to do with U.S. airlines’ growing interest in Latin America, she said. The great deals to the Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico, for example, are the result of Spirit Airlines’ entry into those markets. US Airways started flying to Guatemala in February, pulling those rates down.
So routes long dominated by Latin American carriers and a couple of U.S. airlines now have real competition, Méndez said. “That’s what makes a difference.”
Of course summer is the low season for Latin America and Africa, the tropical destinations that make up the bulk of Méndez’s business. For many of her colleagues, Europe is now the focus of attention. And there, the deals are unimpressive, other agents said.
“Italy is always very popular, and pricing is pretty high this year, like $1,000,” said Andrea Rossner, manager of Liberty Travel, in Providence. Slightly better deals are available in what remains of the “shoulder” season, until June 15, she said, but from then until Sept. 15, fares to Europe are as high as they get. Even London, which is relatively inexpensive because there is plenty of competition, is going for about $700, Rossner said.
But the prices aren’t keeping away her clientele, primarily East Siders and college students and faculty, Rossner said, nor is the strong euro – which weakens U.S. tourists’ buying power. It does help, however, that Liberty sells a lot of tours, she said, because the package prices are guaranteed regardless of currency fluctuations.
At Yankee Travel, in Wakefield, co-owner Candy Adriance said packages aren’t as popular with her customers, who seem to be “more independent” than U.S. travelers used to be. As with Liberty, the top destination is Italy – “year after year, for first-time as well as well-seasoned travelers.” But Adriance said she’s also booked “a lot of safaris” in Tanzania, Kenya, South Africa, as well as trips to India and other parts of Asia.
“People are definitely traveling, and in fact the flights are very heavily booked for the summer,” Adriance said. It’s not a big increase from last year, she said, but last year she had “a lot more” business than she’d had since Sept. 11.
Getting customers good deals is particularly challenging this year, Adriance said, because U.S. carriers seem to be tightly controlling their inventory to maximize the fares they get, making flights look fully booked, then releasing more seats, then pulling back again.
“On any given day you might find something going on to a destination, and you might come in the next day and it won’t be there anymore,” Adriance said.
But working that system – and finding not just good deals, but really nice hotels and attractions in foreign countries – is what keeps Yankee Travel in business. Domestic travelers, on the other hand, increasingly book their own trips, often on the Internet.
According to the Travel Industry Association of America, 44.6 million travelers booked trips online in 2004, and 63.8 million planned trips online, continuing a steady upward trend. The use of travel agents, on the other hand, dropped from 32 percent to 26 percent of travelers between 1999 and 2002, with baby boomers and more affluent travelers staying most loyal.
Even Méndez isn’t exempt from that trend. Her customers also go online more and more, she said, and that dampens the benefit from this year’s upsurge in travel. “We’re surviving, let’s put it this way, but it’s not like before anymore.”
For Adriance, one of the biggest challenges from the Internet is the “unrealistic expectations” it gives many customers. They see ultra-low prices posted on Web sites and assume that’s how much their money can buy them, say, in Europe, she said, and then she has to sort through it all and help steer them toward genuinely good values, not deceptive promotions. And that, in turn, requires an extensive knowledge of her destinations.
“People still come to travel agents for their expertise, but as a travel agent you do need to know your products to compete,” Adriance said. “Where there used to be eight or nine agencies in our area, now we’re down to two – survival of the fittest, no question.”
At Collette Vacations, in Pawtucket, which puts together travel packages that it sells directly and to agencies, Cyndi Zesk, vice president for marketing, said the staff’s expertise – and the fact that each hotel, each attraction, each tour provider, has been personally tested – is what allows the agency to compete even in an Internet-savvy market. (Collette also sells tours through Travelocity, however, so it’s taking its share of the Web market.)
Collette’s top destinations right now are Europe and Australia, Zesk said, but customers are also hitting more exotic destinations, especially in escorted tours, because the packages make it easy to do. “We’re selling trips to China, for example, and families taking advantage of escorted vacations, where you can invite 10 or 20 of your relatives.”
And there’s no question, Americans want to travel abroad this year, she said.
“We’re seeing a lot of pent-up desire to travel,” Zesk said. “Americans are feeling more safe. They don’t seem to be as stifled anymore, or have that feeling that they have to stay home.”
Like Liberty and Yankee Travel, Collette is finding the cost of most vacations to be higher this year, especially due to airfares. Fuel surcharges alone, Zesk said, are adding about $70 per ticket to Paris, up from $60 last year and zero two years ago.
But when the Louvre beckons, what’s another $70?
“It’s more expensive,” Zesk said, “but it doesn’t seem to be curbing people’s desire to travel.”
