The real story behind the holiday booking surge
Holiday reservations are certainly up – but should you really book now?
6 March 2021 • 5:00am Airlines can quickly roster new flights and there will certainly be plenty of accommodation available through the summer
Credit: Getty
‘Bookings up 1,000 per cent!” screamed one overexcited press release a couple of days after the Prime Minister set out the road map to freedom. When I inquired further, the company refused to give figures or even clarify whether it meant a 1,000-fold increase (as I think most people might have thought) or a 10-fold rise (which is what a mathematician would understand).
Parts of the Alps got over a metre of snow last weekend, but will Irish holidaymakers get to ski Europe’s slopes this winter?
Once Covid forced ski resorts to close back in March, and Ischgl in Austria’s Tyrol got singled out as a “superspreader”, this season was under threat. So far, at least one operator (Hotelplan/Inghams in the UK) has cancelled all departures until February. Others have gone out of business. The rest hope they can survive this season to rebuild for ’21/22.
Switzerland will open its resorts, but those in Austria, France, Italy, Germany and Andorra will not open to international visitors until January. Austrian ski-resort hotels and restaurants will stay shut until January 7, while ski lifts at French resorts may not begin to operate until January 20.