ABC Is Easy As ...

Anyone who might have been hoping that the all-inclusive (AI) would just close the tap on its endless lager and go away should think again, especially if they happen to be aware of the brochures being issued for 2010. Thomson and First Choice have got theirs out. There is a dedicated all-inclusives brochure for both operators. These do not mean a sudden rise in the number of hotels offering AI - they are more a case of packaging the package - but they indicate the direction in which the tour operators are going, even more than before.

For those alarmed at the inexorable march of the AI, there is no solace from the press release coming from Thomson and First Choice. Indeed there is more to be alarmed at. Using findings from the market research organisation Mintel, this says that "the main increase (in AI) has been within the affluent ABC1 socioeconomic groups who have previously favoured self-catering accommodation". There is now a growth in 4- and 5-star AI that provides far more than just all that lager and dodgy nosebag, attracting those who want "variety, convenience and superior standards". For the customer seeking some certainty as to his budgeting, the AI makes money "go further", says the head of short and mid-haul and product development. The release goes on to say that, "AI holidays now make up 20-25% of all package holidays, with bookings having grown by 32% in the last five years".

Whilst much of the attention is turned towards the AI ghettoes of the likes of Alcúdia, it is perhaps easy to overlook the fact that AI is on offer in the higher-standard hotels. Go to the Iberostar site, as an example, and you will find "all-inclusive" clearly buttoned. The Iberostars cater for the type of clientele that the Mintel research is referring to. It is precisely the sort of clientele that local restaurateurs can ill afford to have staying ensconced in a hotel lapping up a superior level of service - all of it pretty much pre-paid. Value for money and convenience are just as attractive to the more elevated levels of the socioeconomic food chain as to the deltas and epsilons.

Mallorca has long craved a so-called "quality" tourist, and many have held the view that it is this market which will re-invent the tourism economy. But if it finds its way ever more into all-inclusive exclusive enclaves with spas and I-Pod docking stations, it, too, will contribute less and less to the wider economy. It is instructive to consider the findings in Hawaii where it has been calculated that more than 80% of an AI traveller's "fees" go to airlines, hotels and international companies - meaning, in the latter instance, the tour operators - and not to local businesses or workers.

As part of the recent plan to consider the island's tourism economic model, the regional government and others are meant also to be addressing the role of all-inclusives. They're meant to be, but whether anything comes of it must be extremely questionable. We've been here before, and nothing has been said beyond the initial announcements as to concerns and looking at the issue. While true that hotels' board offers are subject to licensing, this has hardly had any effect in slowing the pace of all-inclusive places. It is, however, not necessarily the case that hotels yearn for all-inclusive clientele. One hotel in Alcúdia, for example, declined a request from Thomson to have an AI provision this year. Some seem to have been pressed into doing so by the current economic situation, while others are pretty much wholly subject to what the tour operator wants.

Just take note again of those figures - 20-25% of all package holidays are all-inclusive, a 32% increase in five years. What about the next five years?


QUIZ
Yesterday's title - Could have been The Tavares, but of course Take That, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ouH-VQwok3o. Today's title - a ropey lager and pizza from a ropey AI for anyone not getting this.

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