Credit Crunch

With the news full of the phrases “credit crunch”, “financial crisis” and the dreaded word that dare not speak its name - “recession” - you’d be forgiven for thinking that everyone was walking around with little black clouds hovering over their heads.

In a bid to show that we are not all heading into the abyss, we went on a search for some of today’s good news stories and we want to find more!

We started in the field of travel and entertainment because while these may seem to be the kind of luxuries that are the first to go if you are watching your pennies, everybody wants to cheer themselves up every now and again so where better for us to start to try and spread a little happiness. And we came up trumps, with a St Albans-based company who seem to be doing fine.

Going well

Theatre Breaks and Good to See are both tour operators under the umbrella of one company. One organises short breaks combined with theatre tickets in London, Stratford-upon-Avon and Paris while Good To See creates educational itineraries for groups of students – or school trips to you and me!

Managing Director Simon Harding told us that actually things were going rather well and why he thought this was.

“It’s not a big cost and it’s something you can do at the drop of a hat – you can organise something for this weekend for example - and people like to forget about their woes for a while and stop hearing about banks and their problems.

“We’re doing very well. This year, since May, we’re 11-12 per cent up on this time last year.”

School trips

It’s a similar story for the Good To See side of the business. Manager Rachel Oddy said that they have been just as busy at the start of this academic year as last year, if not more.

“The reason for this we think is because it’s educational” she explained.

“The students are going home to their parents and saying that they want to go on this or that trip and I think the parents are assessing how necessary this is for their children to go on these trips, and because it seems like a worthwhile cost, they can budget to allow for a student to go.

“Also, the students don’t have to do something expensive. For example, if you are in the Home Counties it could just be a trip to London, so you don’t need to go very far just to get a bit of education outside the classroom.”

And of course, as well as parents wanting their children to have the same experiences as everyone else who is going,  the power of peer pressure should never be underestimated, something that will always be in Good To See’s favour!

Risk

However, while people still seem happy to spend money on entertainment, Simon feels that they are more unwilling to take a risk at these uncertain times.

“The classic shows are doing very well in London” explained Simon, “everybody likes to see Phantom of the Opera, We Will Rock You or Chicago. They like to see the older ones that they know they will enjoy. The newer ones are just as worthwhile going to see but maybe people don’t want to take a risk, they are a little reticent about taking a gamble even though there are some cracking deals to be had in the West End at the moment.”

This kind of idea was born out by soprano Lesley Garrett, who is currently starring in the UK tour of Rogers and Hammerstein’s classic musical Carousel. When the show arrived at the Milton Keynes Theatre we asked her if she had noticed dwindling audiences on her travels, because people were cutting back on their expenditure?

“No I haven’t, in fact it’s the opposite” she said. “When people are facing hard times and perhaps they can’t spend the big money on a new car or a house extension or moving, then they spend money on smaller pleasures. We all need cheering up, so I think that people, in a way, are arguably more inclined to go to the theatre because it’s a lovely night out.

“I haven’t noticed dwindling audiences, in fact I really do think that people are looking to performers like myself to get them through this. I think that entertainers are people who are very much needed in times of struggle so I’m really hoping that we can help to lift the mood of the nation.”

And of course, as Carousel is so well known, you kind of know what you’ll be getting for your money, as opposed to an untried and untested musical.

Benefits

However, this kind of unwillingness to take a risk at the moment is something that might actually be benefiting the traditional travel agents and tour operators. Following a number of high profile collapses, people certainly don’t want to risk their limited and hard earned holiday funds on a company that may collapse, with no guarantee of getting either their holiday or their money back. Simon feels that they may therefore be using travel agents rather than booking independently. 

“It’s become important that the companies that people book through are bonded properly” said Simon.

“[For example] Good to See are members of ABTA and we all work together to make sure that customers’ money is safe, and so whatever might happen to our company, they can still go on their break. And in the light of recent failures such as Excel, it’s so important to have that security.

“If you’ve only got a limited amount of money to spend and this is your big trip of the year, you want it to be safe.

So it seems that travel agents might actually be doing quite well out of people’s money worries.

“By all accounts, with the 2009 brochures that have come out recently, the bookings through travel agents have increased since the recent round of travel troubles” said Simon.

“I think people are going back to the travel agent, they know they are professional and that they will get good service and if they can see the ABTA or ATOL or IATA sign, then they know that there is going to be some sort of help for them if something does go wrong. So check for the ABTA sign, and do it through that company and you’ll be much more relaxed about your whole holiday.

“Both Theatre Breaks and Good To See are doing very well this year and I see no reason why it won’t continue to do so. We’re looking forward to a very busy 12 months!”

Your stories

Of course, while companies like Theatre Breaks and Good To See know their own figures a lot of what is said is also based on what they feel and this too is important. It’s people’s attitudes that can lead to recession because if they think that they shouldn’t be spending money, they don’t, and if money doesn’t go into the economy, this only makes things worse.

And of course, no one is saying that bad things aren't happening in the economy, but Simon's company's experiences show that when things are tight, people have to make decisions and some companies do better than others out of that. But this also happens all the time, not just in recession.

So with this in mind, we want to hear your stories, both good AND bad, of how the current financial situation is affecting you, so that we can begin to see if things really are bad for everyone, or whether some are having a good time and some aren’t – just like normal life!