Holidaymakers could start booking later as climate change makes the weather around the world less and less predictable, warned ABTA Chief Executive Mark Tanzer.
Speaking during a panel discussion at the Travel Convention in Greece, Mark said people will wait to see what the weather will be like – and, crucially, that it won’t be too hot – before committing to a holiday.
“Climate change isn’t just that it’s permanently hotter, it’s that you don’t know if it’s going to be hot, so people book later,” he said.
If bookings come in later, that will adversely affect the cashflow of the travel industry, he said, adding that this might lead to higher costs.
However, easyJet holidays CEO Garry Wilson suggested there is no evidence that recent heatwaves in the Mediterranean are impacting bookings.
“I think for the UK consumer, the hotter the better sometimes,” he said, citing a recent flight he took to Egypt when the pilot announced on landing at 6pm that it was 33 degrees and the passengers shouted ‘whoop whoop’.
Garry said even last year’s wildfires that forced holidaymakers to flee from hotels in Rhodes hadn’t put people off travelling to the Greek island in the summer.
“As soon as that was over, the demand came back within a matter of days,” he said. “Rhodes is our biggest Greek island again this year.”
His comments were backed up by the ABTA Holiday Habits report 2024-25, which showed that, based on the travel intentions of 2,000 people who took part in a survey in July and August this year, Greece will remain the fifth most popular holiday destination for British holidaymakers next summer, attracting 11% of the market.
Garry said that while easyJet does fly to cooler destinations ‘people aren’t saying where is the Egypt equivalent in Belgium’.
The airline is launching flights from London Gatwick to Tromso in Norway in November, but Garry said this wasn’t in order to offer clients a cooler climate but due to interest in the destination sparked by the BBC’s Race Across the World. Tromso was the finishing line for the race in series one of the popular reality TV show.
Garry acknowledged that the cooler summer months of June and September ‘are certainly very strong months’, especially for holidaymakers without school age children. “Clearly climate change is becoming increasingly a consideration,” he added.
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Speaking during a panel discussion at the Travel Convention in Greece, Mark said people will wait to see what the weather will be like – and, crucially, that it won’t be too hot – before committing to a holiday.
“Climate change isn’t just that it’s permanently hotter, it’s that you don’t know if it’s going to be hot, so people book later,” he said.
If bookings come in later, that will adversely affect the cashflow of the travel industry, he said, adding that this might lead to higher costs.
However, easyJet holidays CEO Garry Wilson suggested there is no evidence that recent heatwaves in the Mediterranean are impacting bookings.
“I think for the UK consumer, the hotter the better sometimes,” he said, citing a recent flight he took to Egypt when the pilot announced on landing at 6pm that it was 33 degrees and the passengers shouted ‘whoop whoop’.
Garry said even last year’s wildfires that forced holidaymakers to flee from hotels in Rhodes hadn’t put people off travelling to the Greek island in the summer.
“As soon as that was over, the demand came back within a matter of days,” he said. “Rhodes is our biggest Greek island again this year.”
His comments were backed up by the ABTA Holiday Habits report 2024-25, which showed that, based on the travel intentions of 2,000 people who took part in a survey in July and August this year, Greece will remain the fifth most popular holiday destination for British holidaymakers next summer, attracting 11% of the market.
Garry said that while easyJet does fly to cooler destinations ‘people aren’t saying where is the Egypt equivalent in Belgium’.
The airline is launching flights from London Gatwick to Tromso in Norway in November, but Garry said this wasn’t in order to offer clients a cooler climate but due to interest in the destination sparked by the BBC’s Race Across the World. Tromso was the finishing line for the race in series one of the popular reality TV show.
Garry acknowledged that the cooler summer months of June and September ‘are certainly very strong months’, especially for holidaymakers without school age children. “Clearly climate change is becoming increasingly a consideration,” he added.
The post Climate change might not affect where people travel, but it could still impact bookings, warns ABTA appeared first on Travel Gossip.
Continue reading...
