Senior watchdogs in the travel business lot have got all hot under the collar about bonding now being as reliable as a published Heathrow flight arrival time. They must all be very young or have very short memories. Of course, before the EEC (seeking problems that do not exist, analysing them incorrectly and applying totally inappropriate solutions, comma, Inc) got it's nose in the trough, travel actually got on rather well, thank you very much, after the shannanigans of the 70's and 80's.
Not only that, but before all these dynamic cheerful youngsters decided that a system built over the years by many wise heads was worth a heave-ho virtually overnight, everyone got a share of the cake and managed quite well. Arcane airline industry practices notwithstanding. The travel trade press carried many warning letters at that time about discounts and that it was all going to end in tears. This was (of course) ignored by the dynamic young executives with flair, only now to find that there are not enough hankies to go around.
"The way the industry worked does not fit our business model" was a popular late 90's and early 2000's refrain. Mr O'Leary (Him of RyanAir fame) took the much admired step of taking a fresh piece of paper and started from scratch. It worked. The also-rans took a perfectly sound system, ripped out the foundations without thinking much beyond next quarters results and have managed to set the whole travel industry back by about 30 years.
Has the Great British Public benefited? Well, a few punters on the midday outing to Grimsville, Arizona may get their flight for 30 bob, but British Industry has wound up getting robbed blind to pay for it. As to holidays, we will just have to wait. This year possibly next, but no more, is the time to enjoy what is left of your (cheap and protected) holidays. After that you take pot luck. We will revert to the olden days of people being ripped off left, right and centre by rogue traders taking money and doing a runner - and this applies to operators as much as agents. What? Thomsons can't go bust? No, they can't. Neither can Rolls Royce. Or Enron. And you can't fly and aeroplane into the side of a tall building and Concorde can't crash. In fact, perhaps the only people who will benefit in the long run are hotels owners. The only secure way of making sure holiday money is safe will be by paying your hotel bill when you leave. This, of course, means that all those silly low hotel rates will be replaced by the "rack" rate (aka going rate) which will be a bit of a shock to the "shell suit at dawn at Gatwick" brigade.
I wonder how long it will be before someone opens a new holiday company, called Court Line or possibly Clarksons.....
Me? Well, one will soldier on. But it seems "security" "reliability" "service" are old hat notions that are unwanted. Certainly people are no longer prepared to pay for such outdated notions. Well, Great British Public, you made your bed and now you have to lie in it!