August news
Another flat month for long-haul travel from UK/Europe I am afraid. All the agents I have spoken to in UK/Scandi are reporting nothing for Australia/NZ and minimal for USA. The booking/cancelling has all stopped. The stats for vaccine programs are impressive so potential for travel in the fairly near future is starting to look good. The image this month is Hayle in Cornwall, all about the staycation!
New Zealand has written off travel for 2021 but I don’t think anyone expected travel to NZ this year, next year looks like it will happen https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-58182418
Australia is having a tough time with Covid 19 spreading, the numbers are still quite low so hopefully this will help increase demand for vaccination. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-australia-58182419
So, stats for vaccine roll-out are now up over 70% of the UK population having their first jab and over 60% having their second. This is also the case for the majority of Europe and Scandinavia. These figures are for total population, so the numbers work out much higher for 18+ age. Australia and New Zealand are starting to improve but are behind with 36% for Australia and 30% for New Zealand on first dose and both on 18% for double doses. See here for detailed data on all countries https://ourworldindata.org/coronavirus
The UK and Scandinavian travel rules continue to be very changeable as countries report spikes of Delta Covid. This obviously causes a lot of issues for travel agents and customers and hammers customer confidence. The good news is that demand is still out there and undiminished, if anything it is growing as schools/universities finish and summer starts here. The weather in the UK is not great which also increases demand for travel.
Travel to the USA looks very close to happening and even NZ/Australia seem closer to picking a date for opening up even if that looks like being mid-2022. Demand will far outstrip supply when this happens as customer demand for longer holidays to safer destinations is huge right now and NZ/Australia are perfect for this type of holiday
I hope you are all well and keeping safe.
keith@tailormaderepresentation.com or phone +44 77699 71217
Keith Marsh
Tailor Made Representation – Helping you connect.