Advice urging the public not to book a summer holiday due to the continuing uncertainty over the coronavirus crisis could have a catastrophic impact on the larger travel agents, according to industry experts.
Fresh fears have emerged after UK Government officials admitted they can “not say with certainty” when travel restrictions will be lifted.
Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab suggested on Thursday that social distancing rules could be in place until June, when the outbreak is forecast to peak.
However, 24 hours later Number 10 would not commit to that time-frame and said people should continue to avoid “non-essential” domestic and international trips.
The prime minister’s official spokesman said: “While we are making progress in our fight against coronavirus, we are not able to say with certainty the point at which the social distancing measures can be relaxed.
“In terms of travelling within the United Kingdom for holidays, that is not something which the current social distancing guidelines allow for.
“Secondly, in terms of travel abroad the advice of the Foreign Office continues to be that you should go abroad for essential travel only.
“As of today, it is a fact that both the guidelines and Foreign Office advice do not allow for people to go on holidays”.
Bill Munro, the former owner and founder of Barrhead Travel Ltd who worked in the travel industry for 43 years, told The Courier the ongoing crisis is likely to have a “catastrophic impact” on the larger travel agents which will, he says, result in a “reshaping of the travel industry landscape”.
He added: “The big national travel agents selling from brochures will be hit hard and I fear many will not survive this crisis, however, the small and medium size firms will fair much better.
“The industry has seen a shift to tailormade holidays with the smaller independent agents having much more flexibility, offering exceptional personal service and can adapt quickly to changing trends as well as the unprecedented situation we are currently faced with.
“There is still so much uncertainty that it is still too early to know what the full impact the coronavirus and the advice for people not to book summer holidays will have on the industry but it will not be good for some of the bigger names.”
Independent travel agent Bruce Lamond, owner of Kirkcaldy based Travel My World, said his firm were already advising customers originally booked for summer to reschedule for later in the year, regardless of the Government advice.
“The public are largely realistic and are already looking to later in the year or scrapping this year’s holiday plans and booking for 2021 to give themselves something to look forward to,” said Bruce.
“A holiday is a big priority for many Scottish households and we’ve seen that reflected in the number of new booking since the lockdown started.
“But I’m also hearing from within the travel industry the sort of adverse impact this lockdown is having on bigger, less flexible firms who are already struggling.”
