Not a day seems to go by at the moment without headlines about the latest turmoil in the financial markets.

Stories about the cost of this, that and the other going up can make for pretty depressing reading.

All the more reason to turn to holiday planning for a bit of light relief.

The year 2009 will be upon us sooner than we think, and travel companies are gearing up for what is sure to prove to be one of trickiest new year selling periods as you and I become more bargain conscious than ever before.

The dark days of January and February are traditionally the time when tour operators and travel agents like to bombard us with tempting summer holiday adverts and promotions.

This new year will be no different, except I forecast that while price will remain a key message, there will also be equal emphasis placed on value for money and financial security.

The high profile failure of the UK’s third largest tour operator XL Leisure Group in September together with a number of smaller airlines throughout 2008, has raised the question of financial safeguards for passengers to a new level.

While some people caught up in the XL collapse were able to continue with their holidays, many thousands lost out due to the differences and complexity of financial protection guidelines which are meant to cover holidaymakers if their travel firm goes bust.

In a nutshell, you will get your money back if you book a package holiday or cruise if the company you booked with goes under, but you will not if you book direct with an airline or go online to create your own trip by piecing together various holiday components such as flights and accommodation.

I know it sounds unfair, and it is. While the travel industry needs to urgently grapple with the government to ensure some form of across the board financial failure protection is put in place, it makes sense to take out a comprehensive travel insurance policy before going away.

So, what does this have to do with cruising, I hear you ask? Everything, I would say, as cruises not only represent good value for money, but there is the added security of knowing you will be protected against the extremely unlikely event of there being a problem with your holiday.

I attended the annual conference of the Association of British Travel Agents (ABTA) a few weeks ago and it was heartening to hear those running major travel operators and agents talking sense about the prospects for 2009 holiday-taking.

The generally held view was that package holidays would be in vogue again with customers looking to the security of established holiday brands in tough economic times.

Equally, those running the country’s largest cruise companies made it clear that they would be placing far more emphasis the value a cruise represents against other types of holiday.

Let’s try and break that down. In my experience, you can rely on a cruise holiday to include all meals, entertainment, childcare, use of the gym, a range of on-board activities as diverse as rock climbing and surfing on a wave machine and even some non-alcoholic drinks.

With all that bundled into the up-front price of the cruise, you should only expect to pay extra for drinks, organised shore excursions – you can always get off the ship and do your own thing – spa treatments, minor supplements to dine in superior restaurants overseen by celebrity chefs such as Marco Pierre White, James Martin and Gary Rhodes, and tips for your cabin steward and restaurant waiter.

When weighing that up against equivalent land-based holidays, which inevitably come with unforeseen add-ons, cruises come out pretty favourably, even before factoring in the flexibility of visiting around eight different ports of call in a fortnight.

This is backed up by recent research which revealed that people are looking for all inclusive deals as a way of saving money, and cruises are providing UK travellers with a great way of achieving this.

And more people are visiting cruise websites as quick and convenient way of researching the many holiday options available, with the most popular destinations ranging from Caribbean cruises , Mediterranean cruises to Norway cruises, the Nile cruises and Alaska cruises.

With the ability to take a two-week sailing for a little over £1,000 each, suddenly the idea of cruising in the credit crunch becomes a feasible option.

Phil Davies

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