If you want to see the world, 2003 is shaping up to be the year to do it - at least as far as your wallet is concerned. Airlines, tour operators and holiday firms are slashing prices in the biggest budget travel boom the industry has seen.
A record number of cheap flights is on offer this year, with 100 new routes served by budget airlines and big players, notably British Airways, cutting their fares. Tour operators are cutting prices to persuade belt-tightening consumers to book their two weeks in the sun. Even the super-rich are paying less. 'Package deal' seats on Concorde are half-price.
January and February are when most of us book our holidays - airlines and operators usually take 40 per cent of the year's bookings in the first two months of the year. But this year bookings are down 20 per cent and the industry is responding in the only way it knows: by slashing prices.
Package tour operators are offering discounts of up to 60 per cent on summer holidays. A week in the sun in Spain, including flights, can cost as little as £99. Thomson's prices are down 54 per cent on last year, First Choice is stripping £5 million off the costs of its holidays and MyTravel is offering popular weekend flights for the same price as weekday ones. Cut-price destinations include Barbados, St Lucia and Mauritius, as well as the usual Mediterranean and US resorts.
Yesterday Thomas Cook became the first travel firm to introduce a price guaran tee. Anyone booking a holiday now will receive a refund plus £10 if prices come down later in the year. Overall, package deals are so cheap that people with time on their hands can rent out their home, go on holiday for the entire year and still make a profit.
Independent travellers are taking advantage of price cutting by the big airlines to stitch together their own holidays. British Airways has cut its prices so much it is now possible to fly to Italy, France and Spain on BA for less than on a budget carrier.
In a recent survey, British Airways beat budget carriers on five out of nine routes, and in one case - to Bologna in northern Italy - its fares were half those of 'low-cost' rivals. It is the same story if you want to travel long-haul. Stripping out taxes, BA's fares of £175 to Boston, £204 to San Francisco and £204 to Miami are the lowest the airline has charged for more than 10 years.
In response to BA's move, budget carriers are cutting prices even further and adding new destinations, giving travellers more choice. Together, Ryanair, EasyJet - fresh from its takeover of Go - and Buzz are flying to 100 new routes. Many of them are places you never knew you wanted to go, such as Klagenfurt in Austria or Malmo in Sweden, but with fares from as little as a fiver, consumers are unlikely to turn down the chance.
Toby Nicol of EasyJet describes fares across the no-frills sector as 'ridiculously cheap even by recent standards. Both Ryanair and EasyJet have increased the number of aircraft we have and the routes we serve. The number of seats has almost doubled. The only way you can fill those seats is by cutting prices. In the past travel firms used to start the year with high prices and discount later. Now we are discounting early. This is undoubtedly the best value time for consumers.'
Ryanair, which flew 14.5m passengers last year - three times the population of Ireland, where the airline is based - is due to carry around 16m this year. 'We fly to over 90 destinations across 14 countries and new routes and destinations are being added every month. Fares are falling on average by 5 per cent a year and are expected to keep going that way,' spokesman Mark Leech said.
The price cutting is so dramatic that even the normally sceptical Consumers' Association is urging travellers to take advantage of the latest deals.
Kim Winter, managing editor of Holiday Which?, said: 'If you know where you want to go and which hotel or guest house you want to stay in, now is a good time to take advantage of these discounts.
'Obviously, we always urge consumers to read the small print, but tour operators are sharpening up their act. The market is as competitive as it has been for a while.'
Observers say the growth in travel opportunities will continue through 2003, with at least 50 new budget flight destinations - including the Baltic States, Poland and Russia - expected to be added to departure boards across the country.
The launch of a new budget airline, MyTravel Lite, will also help to drive no-frills air fares down even further.
With capacity reaching saturation point in the South-East, the biggest expansion in air travel will be at regional airports from Exeter to Aberdeen. New budget hubs are planned for Bournemouth, Leeds-Bradford, Newcastle and Scotland's Prestwick.
New air routes will put yet more pressure on over-stretched air traffic controllers. Another group that is likely to lose out in the boom is travel agents. More and more of us are booking flights, sourcing beachside hotels and navigating car rental online with operators such as Expedia and Opodo, instead of going to an agent.
