Domestic bookings on the rise as holidaymakers choose staycations
After months spent confined within their homes, but with no guarantees of how or when travel guidelines will be lifted, many people are looking to staycation bookings in a bid to ensure a 2020 holiday of some kind.
Earlier this week Home Grown Hotels said that, government guidance permitting, all of its Pig hotels will open on 4 July. A spokesperson told The Caterer that the group took 700 reservations for rooms after lines reopened on Monday, equating to 100 rooms per hour. She added: "That's the amount we would take when launching a hotel."
Ros Pritchard, director general of the British Holiday & Home Parks Association, reported a similar surge in bookings and urged holidaymakers not to leave it too late to book a summer holiday.
Speaking to The Caterer, she said that UK holiday parks had seen most customers rebook holidays planned for Easter in July and August, rather than cancelling, thereby effectively benefiting from "summer holidays at Easter prices".
Pritchard added: "We've been having an awful lot of bookings. Interest picks up every time there is a government announcement.
She said that the "quarantine saga" would mean that tourists typically arriving from Germany, Italy and Holland would not be able to holiday in the UK this summer, "so that will give us a little more capacity", but was sceptical this would meet increased domestic demand.
Luxury worldwide travel company Kuoni, which launched its first collection of tailor-made UK and Ireland holidays at the end of May, said that confusion around quarantine plans and continued restrictions on travel this year had led people to rethink this year's plans.
Derek Jones, chief executive of Kuoni, said: "It's clear from the conversations we're having with customers and booking patterns that many people will opt to stay closer to home within the UK this year as they see overseas travel in the near future as too risky."
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