July news
I was hoping for good news this month, but the new Delta variant has caused some problems with European travel. The stats for vaccine programs are impressive but all countries opening up for events/gatherings has caused a steep climb in infections. In further poor news, England failed to win the European Cup this month! To get to the final was still a great achievement and the team are very young so it all bodes well for the World Cup next year. Denmark was also special in the Euro’s and thanks for all the comedy comments from Danish friends.
So, stats for vaccine roll-out are now up to 68% of the UK population having their first jab and over 52% having their second. The USA is on 55%, Canada is at 70%, Germany is on 59% and the Scandi countries are all past 58%. These figures are for total population, so the numbers work out much higher for 18+ age. Australia and New Zealand are behind still with 28% for Australia and 17% for New Zealand. The recent outbreak in Australia is likely to increase the sense of urgency for vaccinations with NZ/AU government and population which is the only positive to come from this. See here for detailed data on all countries https://ourworldindata.org/coronavirus
The UK travel rules continue to be very changeable which is causing a lot of issues for travel agents and customers. This obviously affects customer confidence but the demand for travel is enormous. UK bookings to Europe are still coming in massive numbers even with changing rules on isolation on return. Anyone double jabbed can now avoid this after travel to ‘amber’ countries but not France for some reason! It is not easy to keep up with rules but sheer desperation is making people travel anyway with kids being taken out of school early to avoid the risk of infection/isolation.
The market for long-haul travel is even more desperate as customers would rather one big holiday somewhere safe rather than multiple small holidays which can go wrong. This approach leaves far less chance of failure and less need for multiple tests, isolation on return, etc.
Terrible news of floods in Germany/Belgium with high loss of life and huge damage this week, still many people missing https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-57871308
There is still a huge pent-up demand for travel to USA, Australia and New Zealand so make sure everyone knows all about your great features and any changes or new products.
This month has also been the month we lost Brendon Pope, a great friend, colleague and a massive advocate of tourism in New Zealand. He was massively positive all the way to the end and should be an inspiration to us all especially in these tough times. The image this month is of Brendon, Shelly Katae and me at Trenz back in 2004, great memories.
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.