Amid crisis holiday firm faces a winter with nowhere to go
A family-run travel agency which went five months without a single booking due to the pandemic has lifted the lid to STUART PIKE on the race to get away, fears of a winter sun blockade and hanging on the every word of weekly government advice
IN January and February, Best Destinations, in Accrington, enjoyed a booming start to 2020 - and they had no inkling that the industry was about to grind a juddering standstill.
Now in its third year, the small firm was on target to naturally grow, having opened a retail premises in year two. But their plans were all thrown into turmoil by the coronavirus.
“Everybody always told me that in the third year you will see a massive increase,” says director Jon Haworth, who has 15 years’ experience in the industry.
“The first two months of the year were our best ever. January and February saw a massive increase in where we were, and then March arrived. We did a booking on March 8, and the next time we did a booking was about August.”
The company, based on
Blackburn Road, has in recent weeks been riding resurgent demand from lockdown-weary customers keen to get away, but with quarantine areas being redrawn with ever-shifting government announcements, there is a precarious financial tightrope to negotiate.
Until last week, Turkey was the destination of choice, only for that country to be added to the quarantine list last Thursday in what Jon described as “an absolute nightmare”.
Speaking on Friday, he said: “We have five couples out in Turkey at the moment, four of which won’t arrive home in time to miss quarantine and we cannot source new flights for them either.
“We spent the whole of last night trying to rebook customers who should be travelling today and this weekend so that they still have a holiday. Luckily we managed to swap them all over. We’ve spent the first three hours this morning contacting other affected guests due to travel this month, trying to either rearrange them alternative holidays or arrange refunds.
“We now have basically two Greek islands left to sell for this month and that is it.
“We aren’t selling Cyprus or Madeira due to the fact you have to have a test inside 72 hours of travel and test results take longer than that to return.”
As the British winter creeps closer, the whole industry will be praying corridors are opened to hotter climes to the south and west. Best Destinations have echoed calls from the UK travel industry for more clarity from the government and forewarning of which countries are set to be added to quarantined zones.
The current focus is on packaged holidays because in the current uncertain climate, the role of tour operator is susceptible to one part of the holiday going wrong - such as a hotel closure.
Even if a holiday remains feasible, for many potential clients the prospect of facing a further 14 days off work upon returning is a non-starter.
Jon would also like more consistency, for instance he claims the treatment of some Greek islands has been more nuanced than Spanish resorts, on which they are heavily reliant for winter sun custom.
“It’s affected us massively. First of all when we have had cancellations on holidays that were already bought, we had to refund the commission on holidays that were bought months in advance.
“We were giving back money already spent. The second knock-on effect is nobody could go anywhere or book any holidays.
“We won’t have anywhere to send anyone for winter holidays at all, unless they open up winter destinations - Canary Islands is a main one for us. The majority of the Caribbean is a no-go at the moment.”
Despite the uncertainty surrouding global travel, Jon says those holidaymakers who make it away are finding themselves pleasantly surprised and relieved with the experience - particularly around maskwearing.
“The feedback we are getting from our customers is it’s as normal as you would expect it to be,” he said.
“Everybody bar none has a great time when they’ve been on their holidays. I’ve just had somebody come back from Turkey, and they’ve come back to book in two weeks’ time.
“They said it was absolutely fantastic, and it’s better over there than it is here. That’s very reassuring.”
» Best Destinations has announced the winner of a 10-night all inclusive trip to the Maldives worth £5,000 is Daniel Riding, from Clayton-le-Moors.