Agents suffer as the heat rises again

An overwhelming majority of travel agents have found it harder to sell holidays during the heatwave, according to the latest TravelMole poll.

Of those who responded to our poll over the past 13 days, 84% said business has become harder in the recent hot weather.

And the bad news is that it’s set to get hotter again, with temperatures in London expected to soar to above 30°C before settling at around the mid 20s going into the weekend. In Manchester highs will reach 25°C, in Cardiff 24° and 20° in Edinburgh.

The Met Office has even issued a "heat health alert" for the east and southeast of England, saying there is a 60% probability of heatwave conditions between noon today and 18:00hrs on Friday in parts of England.

Moving into next week, temperatures will return to more normal levels, possibly bringing a reprieve for travel agents, although temperatures may remain above average in parts of the south and east of England throughout August.

However, it is rain that is more likely to keep customers away from the high street next week as there is a risk of thundery showers, especially towards the west and northwest, where it will probably be quite windy too.

During an earlier heatwave in mid July, online travel agents said last-minute bookings for summer holidays dropped more than 20%, causing some to speculate that the weather will have almost the same devastating effect on the industry as the ash cloud crisis of 2010.

On Holiday Group chief executive Steve Endacott said most major OTAs were reporting a severe decline in bookings, which was unlikely to pick up while the weather remains good.

Today, Thomas Cook issued a trading update saying last year’s strong lates market, due to bad summer weather across much of Europe, had not been repeated this year.

And hotel comparison website www.trivago.co.uk released figures to show that overseas hotel searches dropped by up to 25% during the heatwave, while UK hotel searches increased by up to 41%.

Comparing the 12 days before the heatwave struck on July 13 to the 12 days afterwards, Trivago said searches in Majorca, usually in the top 10 summer destinations, were particularly impacted.

Magaluf was down by 25%, Palmanova by 20%, Alcudia by 17% and Santa Ponsa by 16%.

"Majorca is a popular destination amongst UK holidaymakers and it is unusual to see searches decrease during peak summer season," it said.

Meanwhile, searches for Ayia Napa and Protaras were down 19%  and 16% respectively, Salou was down 16% and in the Costa del Sol, Fuengirola and Nerja were down 14% and 13% respectively.