Viewpoint

British showing loyalty

Humphrey CarterPalma12/03/2020 12:53

Obviously, holiday and flight bookings have taken a hammering since the outbreak of the coronavirus, but the Balearics, in particular Majorca, can at least gain comfort in the fact the region remains the most sought after destination in the UK for holidays this year.

The Germans, to the contrary, have turned their backs. At the tail end of last year, post-virus, figures of a four million fall in German visitors this year was being forecast, now the virus has hit as the country grapples with a financial downturn, it seems the Germans are going elsewhere, if at all, to cheaper destinations.

However, reports coming out of the UK travel industry and more encouraging.

Searches for summer sun destinations have begun to recover after taking a hit of 20% a week ago, according to holiday comparison site Icelolly.com.

Fears surrounding the spread of coronavirus have hit demand across the industry, but Icelolly said searches are now just 10% down on four weeks ago, “suggesting confidence is returning to the market slowly but surely” - and the top destination is the Balearics, followed by Costa Blanca and Tenerife - the best Turkey can do is tenth.

Granted, this is an extremely fluid situation but I think people, including the media, need to be responsible and not fuel alarming news where it does not exist.