Have thoughts of a stumbling economy, worries about job security and rumours of public sector strikes throughout Europe put you off taking that traditional summer holiday to Spain this year? Well perhaps it’s time that you put such thoughts to bed and jump on the burgeoning array of late summer travel deals.

According to recent report published by the Guardian a mixture of factors including job security, strikes, force majeure and downbeat consumer trends has resulted in a dramatic drop in tourism across the continent, forcing tour operators to drastically slash prices in order to sell flights, car hire bookings and hotel rooms. According to the article a number of travel companies are offering discounts of up to 40% for Mediterranean vacations, some of which are increasing to 60% after the summer holidays.

Tui Travel the owner of Thomson Holidays blames a number of factors for the sudden summer bonanza including the good weather, the emergency budget and rumours of continuing strike action throughout Spain, Italy and Greece. According to reports the company still has in excess of 650,000 flights and packages left to sell this summer.

Last minute packages and deals have been a stable fixture in the holiday market for more than a decade now, but with such a large drop in flight, hotel and car hire bookings this summer, operators have now been forced to take more drastic measures. In some cases ‘when you get within 12 weeks of departure, you see prices really start to drop for lates – up to 70% in some places. They (tour operators) are managing prices on a day-by-day, hour-by-hour basis to ensure they are not left with stock which has effectively gone off because the date's gone.’    

If you are reconsidering a summer trip away remember to thoroughly research your destination and travel company before you hop on a flight. A number of tour operators have gone bust this year, leaving passengers stranded and forcing holidaymakers to return home by rental car and additional flights at extra cost.  

Welcome to the future; a future where you won’t have to take a driving test, a future where your car will drive itself to its’ own MOT, a future where your rental vehicle will drive straight from the van hire depot to your door. This does of course all depend upon an elite bunch of crackpot scientists, currently testing out a new range of autonomous driving technology.

For years engineers and scientists have been working on self driving cars and vans using a mix of video technology, computers and GPS to navigate and control the vehicle. The latest attempt to create an autonomous vehicle is being orchestrated by Italian company VisLab. The company website states “After about two decades of continuous research on Intelligent Vehicles, VisLab is preparing to set a new worldwide milestone in the field of Vehicular Robotics.  Autonomous vehicles are being prepared and tested to drive with no human intervention from Parma, Italy, to Shanghai, China, along a 13,000 km and 3 months unique journey.”  

Although the two vans (Piaggio Porter Electric vans) will be virtually autonomous, they will also be equipped with technicians to take control in the event of emergencies. The two vans are equipped with solar panels and they have a top speed of 37mph. Although there are high hopes for the expedition a recent demonstration in which the vans entered a congested traffic circle resulted in a communication breakdown between the vehicles, forcing the onboard technicians to take over.