Dear Reader

ABTA, the trade association for tour operators and travel agents, has been talking up the market for half-term, which starts today. And who can blame them? But the truth is that half-term departures will be down nearly 20 per cent compared with the same period in pre-pandemic 2019.

Similarly, the number of people taking cruises this year will be way short of what it was four years ago, with cruise lines — which admirably continue to invest in spanking new ships — now hoping that 2024 will be a bumper year.

It’s all perfectly understandable, given the state of the world and the squeeze on household budgets. Travel is a luxury, even though the actual travelling part can be hellish.

That said, the strikes in France have abated (perhaps it’s halfterm there, too, and we all know how the militant French never like to distrupt their own holidays), while the planned three-day strike next week by Border Force is not predicted to cause too much chaos.

Meanwhile, the travel industry is doing its bit to support the aid effort in Turkey following this week’s devastating earthquake. There’ll be on-board collections today in aid of Unicef on EasyJet flights; BA is redirecting its donations to the Disaster Emergency Committee appeal and Tui is dispatching a fleet of coaches to areas of southeastern Turkey.

Jet2 Holidays is donating £50,000 to buy vital aid supplies such as food, water and hygiene products, plus sending 100 transfer coaches to deliver provisions and help evacuate displaced people. Many other operators, including Intrepid Travel, are rallying to the cause.

Turkey (Kalkan pictured) is, of course, a favourite holiday destination for us Britons and in the past 12 months has been outstanding value. The regime there leaves a lot to be desired but its people are resilient. They need our custom like never before — and will surely get it.