Will Summer Holidays Be Seen In 2020?
The UK recently announced its plans to move through the rest of the year as it gears up to ease lockdown measures in the coming months – the first stage set out is to reopen schools where possible in June, with other businesses such as restaurants and bars preparing to reopen in July – although nothing specifically had been mentioned about aviation and travel particularly, one budget airline mentioned they would be fully prepared to offer flights at full capacity in June.
It had already been made quite clear by UK leadership that summer holidays would almost certainly not happen this year – but with the changing in response and the road map laid out, there are some with the expectation that travel may not be too far out of question. Figures comparing previous problemed times such as the September 11 attacks in the US have already suggested that once flights are available again, there will be a dramatic reduction in price for tickets, some suggesting up to 30%, for the first year before they increase the following, where possible it’s likely that those looking for a deal will take advantage of cheaper flights and cheaper accommodation.
(Image from which.co.uk)
Despite the current strong stance on air travel that are many calling for things to return to normal a little quicker – businesses who rely on tourism are at the very top of that list. Since the beginning of the outbreak there have been concerns that restaurants and hotels especially may not survive an extended period of time without customers, and since the UK have announced July as the earliest date for these to reopen that has been additional cause for concern – not all who rely on tourism have been struggling however.
One industry that has been able to prop itself up on modern tech is the gambling industry – although many of the brick and mortar casinos are closed, betting has all but ground to a halt as sporting events find cancellation, and efforts have been made to try and reduce the access to sites for UK gamers, there are many sites that provide a list of non gamstop casinos which have found huge success and traffic due to lockdown measures. As we move forward this is unlikely to change, we may see hugely popular travel destinations such as Vegas be slower to recover as social distancing measures become a norm and travellers try to avoid being in close proximity with others.
Ultimately, only time will tell whether or not we’ll see a mass return to travel within the year to allow for summer holidays to take place once again – wearing masks and temperature checks have been suggested as methods to combat a spread but whether or not this will be successful is quite an unknown – there are those looking to China and using their success with domestic travel as a marker for success, but international travel may hold different implications where different governments may have different requirements on what is acceptable or not – as it stands, the chance of a summer holiday currently is quite a bleak prospect.
