The prolonged lockdown seems to have affected the psychology of British and after the announcement of the British government's intention to partially lift restrictions on the travel out of the country since May, increased by 500% in summer holiday bookings, according to TUI data. The same source said that holiday bookings from mid-July onwards have «soared» with the top countries in the preferences of Britons being Greece, Spain and Turkey.
On Monday 22 February, the British Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced in the House of Commons the setting up of a task force to produce a manual on return to international travel by 12 April. The government will then decide whether to proceed with lifting the restrictions before or after 17 May.
So just as the government was giving even the approximate dates, the British, according to Andrew Flintman, the director of TUI UK and Ireland, were «bursting» with bookings.
According to the travel agency Thomas Cook, after the Johnson announcement, traffic increased by 100% on its website with potential travellers looking for holiday packages for the Greece, Cyprus, Mexico and the Dominican Republic.
At the time Easter is lost, Thomas Cook chief executive Alan French tells the BBC that «while we await further details, it is clear that the government's intention is to open up international travel in the coming months, hopefully in time for the summer holidays.».
The low-cost airline also noticed an increase in bookings on its flights Easy Jet. Within hours, a total increase of 337% and 630% was recorded for the destinations of Crete, Alicante, Malaga, Palma (Mallorca) and Faro (Barcelona).
The airline's chief executive Johan Lundgern said, according to the BBC, that Boris Johnson's announcement «has provided a much-needed boost to the confidence» of British customers. «The reaction of British consumers (to the announcement) showed that they were expecting it,» he added.
However, as Simon Browning writes for the British network, bookings may be on the rise, but there are still many questions in the how the tourism industry will be restarted and how international flights and travel will be handled. At this point, he points out that despite government intentions, there has been no commitment to restart from May onwards. The distance from intention to implementation may be long.
At the same time, the tourism industry has taken a huge hit from closed borders and grounded planes, but also from the imposition of harsh restrictive measures with quarantine hotels and numerous tests. Whether these measures will be lifted and how they will be lifted, depends very much on each holiday destination area and the progress of vaccinations up to the summer.
Moreover, the «ok» of the British government is not enough. Other countries will have to approve the arrival of British tourists without very strict measures, such as, for example, the imposition of a seven-day quarantine, the cost of which will be borne by the traveller.
For her part, Amanda Matthews, head of the luxury holiday travel network Designer Travel, saw a doubling of bookings for the summer, «however we are also receiving hundreds of calls from people who have booked holidays for March, April and June, a time when it is very uncertain whether they will be able to travel or not». As he told the BBC, «because there is no exact date for the resumption of international travel, as a travel agency we cannot give a specific answer to our clients who are anxious about the holidays they have already booked for spring and summer. We have no idea».
