VACCINE LEADS TO TOURS BOOM
Why the UK’s vaccine rollout is giving owners of older vehicles new hope
The UK-wide rollout of COVID-19 vaccines is giving classic fans the confidence to finally plan ahead, leading to a surge in bookings for car tours.
Tour operators said this week that – in parallel with an increase in bookings in the wider tourism industry – those aged over 50 who are more likely to be vaccinated early are now planning ahead, and that they expect more than a year of pent-up demand to lead to a further surge in people planning for events from April onwards.
Scenic Car Tours (sceniccartours. com) said that it’d already seen an increase in bookings and believed that the vaccination will lead to a reduction in lockdown restrictions, enabling more classic events to go ahead. Product and marketing manager, Bob Cole, said: ‘Our main market is those aged 50-plus; some of our customers have already had their first jab, and we’ve already seen a big influx in bookings as that’s helped them to feel more comfortable about getting back out there again.
‘ We’re not back yet to where we were before the pandemic, but we are definitely seeing the light at the end of the tunnel as the vaccine is rolled out. We reckon that the floodgates will start to open from the end of April, going into May – 2021 will be the year of travel.’ Travel Destinations (traveldestinations.co.uk) said that it had seen an increase in classic fans wanting to book classic tours from April onwards and that, when given the choice between taking a refund or moving a booking ahead to a potential new date, some 90 per cent had elected to go for the latter.
Director, Richard Webb, said: ‘For now we’re focusing on the tours closer to home, but there’s clearly a lot of pent-up demand out there and the calls are coming in.
‘People’s confidence is coming back and the vaccines are playing a part in that. There’s still some concern about how fast the government can move and when borders will start to open up again for foreign trips, but if things get going again, we think that it will be a mega-busy year.
And Ian Glass, of Country Lane Tours (countrylanetours.co.uk), said: ‘Most of my regulars fall into the category of those in line for being vaccinated early on, and they’re still very keen to book on for these events – everyone I’ve spoken to is raring to go, and we’re already at the stage of fully booking hotels out for some of our tours this year, with 75 cars booked on for our Welsh Borders tour.
‘People are really keen to get going as soon as the brakes come off – one of my regulars has just celebrated his 91st birthday, has bought a Porsche 996 to mark the occasion and is itching to get out there and enjoy it!’