Heading to a Spanish or Greek island for a week of sleeping all day and boozing all night was once a rite of passage, but it seems the party is well and truly over for Club 18-30.
For those uninitiated, the brand is part of Thomas Cook and offers package deals for people between the ages of 18-30, with the tag line “go big or go home”. Think ‘Sun, Sex and Suspicious Parents’, with fewer cameras, fewer parents, but equal hangovers.
Thomas Cook has announced it may be calling time on these infamous package deals, revealing execs are “exploring options for the future of the brand, which could include the possibility of a sale”.
Is anyone surprised? Here are five reasons we no longer need Club 18-30.
1. We’re over package holidays
According to Travel Weekly, package deals for summer 2018 cost around 9% more than the year before, and with student debt and extortionate housing, a lot of us are too skint to consider them. But thanks to the rise of Airbnb and TripAdvisor, it’s never been easier to plan and book a cheap holiday from the comfort of your home, without the help (and extra cost) of a travel agent.
2. Our relationship with alcohol is changing
The latest findings from the Office for National Statistics show young people aged 16 to 24 years in Britain are “less likely to drink than any other age group”. It’s not that we’re all completely teetotal - in fact the stats show when young people do drink, we tend to consume more in a single session - but with the rise of mindful drinking, seven days of back-to-back boozing don’t seem as exciting anymore.
3. Instagram is giving us travel goals
Once upon a time we flicked through magazines from the travel agent in order to pick a holiday destination. Now, hashtags including #travel and #travelgram show us the wonders of the world from our phones. According to research from Thomas Cook, sharing Insta-worthy snaps is also part of the fun of going on holiday for younger clients - and Magaluf’s strip isn’t the most photogenic of places.
4. We’ve had enough of club reps
Club reps are synonymous with Club 18-30 holidays and throughout the noughties their primary role was leading groups of drunk people around nightclubs with a sticky floors to do shots of Sambuca. But in 2018, not only is organised fun so passé, but we could do without someone on hand encouraging us to drink cheap spirits.
5. We have the confidence to travel alone
Staying with your allotted group and following a set itinerary of booze cruise, followed by pub crawl, followed by pool party, feels outdated in 2018, especially as one quarter (25%) of British holidaymakers plan to go abroad by themselves this year.