UK: Tanks at Heathrow and looming war blamed for new industry slump
There are said to be lies, damned lies and statistics – and that could well be the case today, with newspaper claims that holiday bookings are down by anything between 18 and 70 per cent.
The Independent quotes an industry survey by AC Nielsen, which states that bookings for January are down about seven per cent on last year, which was in turn about 10 per cent down of the year before. The newspaper blames “the spectre of tanks parked at Heathrow and the looming war in the Gulf” for the slump, stating that holidays to the eastern Mediterranean, the Middle East and north Africa have been worst hit.
It quotes an ABTA spokesman thus: “Experience suggests that bookings will come back very quickly when the situation in Iraq is resolved. And places out of the line of fire are still doing well.”
Meanwhile, the Daily Express is sounding even more gloomy, claiming that family bookings have fallen by 50 per cent, with sales of holidays to Turkey down 70 per cent, and overall sales of holidays down 35 per cent. Though the tabloid newspaper does not specify where its figures come from, it feels confident enough to state that the slump “spells disaster” for the tourist business.
