News & views

28 September 2009

First Rate advises Far East offers best value for UK winter sun seekers

UK travellers looking for winter sun destinations offering best value are advised to look to the Far East and destinations such as Thailand, Indonesia and Malaysia, according to First Rate Exchange Services.

Gordon Gourlay, Managing Director, First Rate Exchange Services said: “As sterling once again plummets against the euro people will be looking for destinations which offer guaranteed sunshine, combined with prices that don’t break the bank. We’re expecting increased demand from foreign currency retailers for more exotic currencies such as Thai Baht this winter.

 “Dollar sales should also remain strong as the USA looks set to remain a popular destination.  Despite sterling’s continued weakness against the dollar, price cuts made by many holiday operators means a trip across the Atlantic will still offer good value to UK travellers.”

Gourlay’s comments are in response to the issue of the Post Office®’s Long Haul Holiday Report - First Rate is the wholesaler behind the Post Office’s market leading foreign currency services.

The new Post Office Long Haul Holiday Report revealed that the Far East looks unbeatable value for winter sun.  Thailand again tops the Post Office barometer of holiday spending costs, but Bali and Malaysia are close contenders – all three significantly cheaper than any of Europe’s winter sun options (www.postoffice.co.uk/longhaul2009).¹

2009 has seen some of the lowest ever package prices for Thailand and estimates show prices could be up to 25 per cent cheaper than last winter². Thailand also benefits from a shopping basket of popular tourist staples priced at just £38.13, which is around one third of the cost in Australia, whose basket totals £104.95 – making it the highest priced of 16 long haul destinations in the Post Office Holiday Costs Barometer.3

The same is true of Bali, runner up to Thailand in the survey.  The Indonesian country enjoyed its best year this decade with demand up 54 per cent during the summer for its currency, the rupiah.  This makes it the third fastest growing currency in Post Office branches, behind the Kenyan shilling and South African rand4. 

But a sterling recovery puts Mexico and Jamaica high among the contenders for best value winter sun trips5.  Holidaymakers returning to Mexico, hard-hit earlier this year by the swine flu epidemic, can expect over 12 per cent more pesos for their pounds. 

Jamaica was the cheapest of the Caribbean destinations surveyed for the Holiday Costs Barometer – 21 per cent cheaper than Antigua.  With sterling currently worth over 12 per cent more than a year ago, the Jamaican dollar is close behind the Mexican peso in offering UK tourists the most currency for their pounds this winter.

Despite sterling’s slide against the dollar in early 2009, the latest Post Office research shows that almost one third of holidaymakers planning winter trips will head to the USA6. Tour operators report soaring sales for Florida, New York and Las Vegas – and, with sterling now worth 21 per cent more than at its low point in March, UK tourists can benefit from lower prices in shops and restaurants hit hard by the credit crunch.

Ends

Notes to Editors:

¹ Post Office Holiday Costs Barometer research for European destinations revealed costs for nine tourist staples of £67.89 in Tenerife and £73.34 in Cyprus – compared with £38.13 in Thailand.

² Source: Hayes & Jarvis.  Thailand is the long haul specialist’s top selling winter destination and it quotes prices up to 25 per cent cheaper than a year ago for one week holidays.

³ Post Office Long Haul Holiday Costs Barometer provides prices for nine items, using data supplied by tourist offices, except Indonesia where costs were provided by Pacific World, a Hotelbeds company.

POST OFFICE® LONG HAUL BAROMETER 2009

ITEMS	Thailand (Phuket)	Indonesia (Bali)	Malaysia (Penang)	Kenya	Egypt	South Africa
Cup of coffee Bar/café	£0.50	£1.05	£1.14	£1.63	£0.93	£1.33
Bottle of lager Bar/café	£1.01	£2.80	£2.28	£1.36	£0.99	£1.69
Bottle/can of Coca-Cola Bar/café	£0.30	£1.40	£0.28	£0.72	£0.74	£0.44
Bottle of still mineral water Supermarket	£0.50	£0.70	£0.46	£1.09	£0.74	£0.89
Suncream (factor 15) Supermarket	£5.04	£2.45	£4.75	£6.34	£8.67	£6.22
Postcard and stamp to UK Tourist shop	£0.36	£1.40	£0.33	£1.81	£0.74	£0.89
Insect repellent Supermarket	£0.81	£1.40	£1.33	£1.36	£1.86	£1.78
Pack of Marlboro Lights cigarettes	£1.41	£0.70	£1.71	£1.81	£1.24	£2.31
3 course evening meal incl. bottle of house wine in a local restaurant	£28.20	£34.99	£37.97	£36.21	£43.35	£44.44
TOTAL COSTS	£38.13	£46.89	£50.25	£52.33	£59.26	£59.99

ITEMS	Japan	Jamaica	Mexico	St Lucia	Brazil	Canada
Cup of coffee Bar/café	£1.44	£1.04	£0.77	£1.99	£0.81	£0.90
Bottle of lager Bar/café	£2.12	£2.71	£1.02	£0.77	£0.75	£4.21
Bottle/can of Coca-Cola Bar/café	£1.51	£1.02	£1.02	£0.90	£0.81	£1.66
Bottle of still mineral water Supermarket	£1.79	£2.05	£0.38	£0.77	£0.67	£1.05
Suncream (factor 15) Supermarket	£2.88	£7.35	£7.43	£8.44	£5.67	£10.53
Postcard and stamp to UK Tourist shop	£1.55	£1.24	£1.54	£0.63	£1.30	£1.60
Insect repellent Supermarket	£3.78	£5.42	£2.41	£2.04	£1.01	£4.82
Pack of Marlboro Lights cigarettes	£2.31	£6.96	£1.43	£5.61	£1.72	£6.62
3 course evening meal incl. bottle of house wine in a local restaurant	£43.24	£50.29	£69.16	£71.72	£81.01	£66.22
TOTAL COSTS	£60.62	£78.08	£85.16	£92.87	£93.75	£97.61

ITEMS	New Zealand	Antigua	Australia
Cup of coffee Bar/café	£1.86	£2.05	£1.76
Bottle of lager Bar/café	£3.26	£2.05	£3.40
Bottle/can of Coca-Cola Bar/café	£1.63	£1.54	£1.13
Bottle of still mineral water Supermarket	£0.83	£1.28	£1.02
Suncream (factor 15) Supermarket	£8.00	£7.84	£4.46
Postcard and stamp to UK Tourist shop	£1.40	£0.69	£1.42
Insect repellent Supermarket	£4.42	£5.36	£2.44
Pack of Marlboro Lights cigarettes	£5.12	£1.79	£7.77
3 course evening meal incl. bottle of house wine in a local restaurant	£72.10	£76.85	£81.55
TOTAL COSTS	£98.62	£99.45	£104.95

Source:  Post Office®. Data relates to exchange rates on 19 September 2009.

4 Post Office Top Ten Fastest Growing Currencies, Summer 2009 (June-August)

Currency	June-August 2009 v. 2008
1.  Kenyan shilling	+73% (-)
2.  South African rand	+59% (-)
3.  Indonesian rupiah	+54% (-)
4.  Turkish lira	+51% (8)
5= Hong Kong dollar	+27% (-)
5= Chinese yuan	+27% (3)
7.  Thai baht	+26% (-)
8.  Egyptian pound	+24% (5)
9.  Croatian kuna	+22% (-)
10. UAE dirham	+13% (-)

Restricted to currencies with large sales volumes. Figures in brackets refer to 2008 placings

5 Post Office exchange rates for long haul currencies comparing 2009 with 2008 rates

Country	% +/- 2009 v 2008	Sep 19 2009	Sep 19 2008
Mexican new peso	12.12	19.52	17.41
Jamaican dollar	11.55	129.25	115.87
Indonesian rupiah	-6.05	14290.33	15210.35
Kenyan shilling	-6.90	110.47	118.66
Egypt pound	-7.24	8.07	8.70
Canadian dollar	-7.78	1.66	1.80
US dollar	-8.88	1.54	1.69
EC dollar	-9.30	3.90	4.30
Malaysian ringgit	-9.61	5.27	5.83
Thailand baht	-11.18	49.65	55.90
NZ dollar	-14.34	2.15	2.51
Australia dollar	-14.49	1.77	2.07
Brazilian real	-16.27	2.47	2.95
South Africa rand	-17.70	11.25	13.67
Japan yen	-23.56	138.75	181.52

6 Source: YouGov consumer survey of 2,255 consumers (28 August- 1 September 2009) found that 32 per cent of respondents who had booked or were planning to book a long haul holiday this winter were intending to travel to the US.  The Far East was the next most popular (12 per cent), followed by Australia/New Zealand (11 per cent) and Egypt/Middle East (10 per cent).

About First Rate Foreign Exchange Services:

First Rate is the UK’s leading provider of foreign currency services supplying over 11,500 retail outlets with a foreign currency service. It is the UK’s biggest foreign currency notes supplier and Europe’s major provider of traveller’s cheques and in the top five globally. First Rate sources currency through its associate business unit Bank of Ireland First Currency Services, one of the world’s leading wholesale currency operations.

First Rate can provide UK retailers and businesses with the following foreign currency services:

• Travel Money Online – a service enabling the ordering of foreign currency notes and traveller’s cheques securely via First Rate’s white label internet application
• Bulk provision of currency for currency retailers
• End-to-end consumer order processing – totally outsourced, white label currency solutions for phone, internet or retail outlet order placement

To find out more visit www.firstrate.co.uk.

For further information, please contact:

Four Countries Communications
Ruth Barker
Tel: 0207 749 9219
Mobile: 07814 571128
Email: ruth@fourcountries.co.uk

Bank of Ireland UK Financial Services
Sandra Grandison
Tel: 0203 201 6509
Mobile: 07912 298013
Email: sandra.grandison@boiuk.com

First Rate Exchange Services Ltd is registered in the UK and Supervised by HM Revenue & Customs for Money Service Business (MSB): License number 12133160. First Rate is a joint venture between The Governor and Company of the Bank of Ireland (Registered in Ireland and passported into the UK for regulatory purposes) and the Post Office^® Ltd. The Bank of Ireland is authorised by the Irish Financial Regulator and the Financial Services Authority for the conduct of business in the UK. Bank of Ireland First Currency Services is a division of The Governor and Company of the Bank of Ireland.