UK: Government says we should adopt the holiday habits of our Teutonic cousins
The nation’s holidaymakers may – or may not – be furious to discover the Government says we should be more like the Germans in our holiday habits.
Kim Howells, the Tourism Minister, said we should become more like out Teutonic cousins; he believes that as well as taking holidays abroad, we should also plan breaks within our own country and support the tourism industry here. Germans generally take six weeks’ holiday a year, compared to four in the UK.
Howells told The Independent: “In Germany, people take roughly the same number of holidays in Spain that British people do – but they complement that with a second holiday in Germany. That is what we have got to aim at.” He added: “I believe that travel agents should understand there is a huge untapped market for British people to take more holidays in Britain.”
However, The Independent’s travel editor Simon Calder points out that despite the “favourable” conditions for British tourism – i.e. a general fear of flying and Lonely Planet’s recent assertion that Great Britain is “one of the most beautiful islands on earth” – there are plenty of reasons why Britons will continue to travel abroad in numbers.
He writes: “The typical high street travel agent is set up to dispense overseas package holidays. Besides that British holidays are likely to be more expensive. And then there are the trains …”
