As if purging itself of recent excesses, the package holiday business is engaged in a rare outpouring of candour. Massive price cuts are bogus, it admits. The carrot of a 50% discount is nothing more than a marketing device.

"It is a real discount," says one leading operator, "when we take off the price that we built in to take off." Glaringly obvious, perhaps, but an admission that prices are loaded in the brochures so that customers can be tempted with juicy money-off deals that do not hit the industry's bottom line.

Thomson, Britain's biggest tour company, which expects to see "discounts" of up to 80% next January, when summer bookings usually peak, wants to restore sanity. It has opted to publish more realistic prices at the outset and is offering sensible discounts - of up to 15%, say - when necessary.

But it is a fascinating reflection of the consumer's obsession with getting a bargain that the firm concedes its initiative may not work. A similar move three years ago failed when customers were seduced by eye-catching deals dangled by major rivals.

Those rivals have already made it clear they will not follow its lead. First Choice claims to be already offering half-price deals for summer, 2002, through its own travel agencies. Cosmos JMC is offering up to £300 per couple. And Airtours says its first edition, due out on May 17, will include £20 discounts.

Peter Shanks, First Choice managing director for UK distribution, says: "It is the first time we have seen discounts displayed in this way at this time." Hugh Edwards, marketing and commercial director of the Thomson-owned Lunn Poly chain of agencies, says: "Fifty per cent from day one? It's madness."

Meanwhile, Thomson managing director Shaun Powell claims: "If you offer 50% discounts in your first edition it will be 60% in the second edition and 80% come January. We need to stop this because the customer is becoming confused. Customers can get a discounted holiday for £600 and they can see it in the brochure for £800 or £900. But when they get there, they will quickly discover that in reality it is a £600 holiday. I believe this is a recipe for disaster."

The conclusion to be drawn for consumers is that when comparing next summer's holiday prices, read all the small print, do your arithmetic carefully - and retain a healthy scepticism that the price you pay reflects the value of what you get.