WE Brits have been slow to book foreign holidays this January, it seems.

This is not something which concerns me much because I continue to be more than happy in exotic locations such as the Lake District, Derbyshire and the Yorkshire Dales.

It is just a tad disturbing when I read that my peace is likely to be violated this year by hordes of people who are prepared to swap foreign beaches for holidays in the UK.

According to a story in my Sunday newspaper, leading tour operators say post-Christmas bookings are down significantly and one travel consultant suggests the market might be as much as 30 per cent behind what it was in January, 2002.

The terrorist attacks in America, the threat of an Iraqi war and fear of unemployment in a wobbling world economy are put forward as possible reasons for this state of affairs.

I know this sounds terribly selfish, but I really do hope it does not get too crowded in the Royal Oak in Braithwaite.

My only consolation is that the industry, or so it is reported, is braced for substantial discounts in March if sales do not pick up. Canny travellers might just be waiting to see what happens before deciding on a trip to the sun involving delays at airports, rip-off hotel rooms, diarrhoea-inducing, unwashed salads, time share pests and that bloke who bores you rigid in the bar every night with tales from his ball-bearing factory in Coventry.

Don't tell me, I know my prejudices are showing a little.

But I do wonder if the package holiday is quite the attraction it used to be.

In spite of the tone of this piece, we have enjoyed delightful trips in the past to places such as Madeira, Malta, Cyprus and Majorca.

Somehow, though, I feel increasingly that I do not want any of the hassle which can accompany pilgrimages to the sun.

A week's visit to the Costa del Sol in Spain started with a wrangle over the non-existent sea view we had paid for and ended with most of the diners coming down with some sort of food poisoning bug. The brave rep stood her ground admirably in the face of hostile customers and the travel company later did its shareholders proud by resisting all attempts to secure compensation and apologies.

I now look forward even more eagerly to time spent in rented cottages near to hills and lakes, relatively sure that such problems will not arise and confident that we do not need to worry too much about armed Cumbrian freedom fighters.

It just bothers me that lots of other people might now be planning to do the same.

Moving on, I am fascinated by some research -- funded by the Economic & Social Research Council -- which has been carried out by Professor V. Bhaskar of the University of Essex.

He has been investigating the phenomenon of "asymmetric price adjustment."

The good professor looked in detail at this general premise: "Firms are quick to raise prices when their costs increase, but not so keen to reduce prices when their costs fall."

Some economists, amazingly, do not think this is the case.

Guess what? It is.