CENTER PARCS, a firm that runs adventure-holiday villages in Britain, has been censured for running an advert showing children enjoying a midweek break at its resorts. As the deal was only available during term-time it encouraged parents to take their children out of school, said the Advertising Standards Authority. Center Parcs denies that this was its intention.
Nonetheless, there has been a lot of talk in Britain recently about whether travel firms should be entitled to raise prices during school holidays. First, a frothing Facebook post by an aggrieved father who was fined £1,000 ($1,680) for taking his kids on holiday during term time went viral. Then a petition asking the government to impose a cap on the amount by which holiday firms can increase their prices during school breaks received over 170,000 signatures, prompting severaleditorials in the national press.
The reason there has been a sudden groundswell of public opinion is that the rules about taking children out of school changed last September. From this academic year, parents require a headteacher's permission to remove their offspring from classes; and this can only now be granted in "exceptional circumstances". As a result, a study by the BBC found that the number of fines issued by English local authorities to parents who had flouted the regulations rose 70% in the 2013 autumn term compared with the same term in 2012. (Gulliver was bemused as to why parents would confess to taking their kids away rather than pretend they had come down with a nasty bug, until he was reminded just how impossible it is for eight year olds to keep schtum about their adventures once back in the classroom.)
The obvious point is that higher rates are simply a product of greater demand; it is difficult to see a justifiable reason to start messing with market forces in this case. Prices rise in the holiday season just as they do when there is a big sporting event or conference in town. Airlines and hotels are businesses, not utilities. (And in any event, Gulliver only has a small child who has not yet reached school age, so it is only fair that he be allowed to book a holiday in late September and avoid the teenage crowds; a point of view that he reserves the right to abandon in a couple of years' time.)
One could debate whether it matters if children miss a few days of school to go on holiday with their families. There may also be arguments for staggering the school year, or making the summer holidays shorter, as Malcolm Gladwell and many others argue. But the consideration should be whether this has academic benefits, not if it allows for cheaper leisure.
