The travel industry needs a wet British summer to ease the Brexit pain, according to AITO director Noel Josephides.
Speaking to TravelMole today, he said: "We’re all hoping for a poor summer in the UK so that we can get last minute peak bookings but the worry, of course, is that the later the demand comes, the more margins are hit."
With a sluggish start to the year for short-haul bookings, Josephides said the last thing the industry needs now is a short-term Brexit delay.
"A delay to June would be very problematical to us. That’s just adding three months to the uncertainty," he said.
"A delay to 2021 would be better. I think from the point of view of the public they would start booking again."
But he said there’s a lot of catching up to do.
"We’ve been sacrificed as an industry at the hands of the politicians. The Government has been putting out all the warnings about the impact of Brexit and these warnings are frightening people.
"The fact is, and we all know it, it is very safe for people to go to Europe. We would be welcomed with open arms. All the people I speak to – the Greeks, Portuguese, Spanish – they don’t want this situation to carry on and they say that even if there is a hard Brexit they will make things as easy as possible, but they’re not able to say that officially.
"There hasn’t been enough of that reassurance from the UK and from other destinations because everyone’s frightened of putting a foot wrong."
He also blamed the consumer media for not making enough of the assurances provided by booking a bonded package.
"This message doesn’t always get across and it really annoys us. We spend a fortune in making sure we’re well capitalised through bonding and public liability cover and yet this is so often not mentioned," said Josephides.
"Journalists in the consumer press don’t push those advantages. Not only do customers get the protection, but with the deals that are going to be around this year they’d be silly not to book a package."
