UK travel chiefs pour cold water on claims of record summer season

As the Bulletin reported yesterday, the only winners this summ er have been the hoteliers with resorts bars, restaurants and shops having suffered again.

Palma.—With headlines across Spain of a record summer season sparked by claims made by the Minister for Industry and Tourism, Jose Manuel Soria on Monday, leading travel chiefs in the United Kingdom were quick to question the claims and warned of a cold winter with summer 2014 looking somewhat worrying.

Hugh Morgan, the newly promoted Chairman of the Monarch Travel Group, said yesterday that Soria appears confused.

"From a UKperspective, and I am talking right across the board, it has not been a record season, especially for Spain and the Balearics.

"He may be confusing the markets. With the Germans and the French pulling out of Egypt at such late notice, Spain was about their only alternative destination but here in the UK, all of the tour operations enjoyed a lot of very early business so come the middle of the summer we had already sold a lot of package holidays.