The British travel industry rounded on government ministers this morning after Home Secretary Priti Patel said that it was too early to book a summer holiday despite upbeat comments from Prime Minister Boris Johnson on Monday.
An independent committee will report on April 12 to the British governmnent and if all goes according to plan summer holidays could be allowed from May 17. Infact, some of our online readers have already booked this date.
Patel said: “Well, it’s too early. It’s far too early. It is too early and we have to look at the data at every single stage and the roadmap outlined by the prime minister makes that abundantly clear.”
The general secretary of the British Airline Pilots’ Association, Brian Strutton, said: “It is unbelievable that yet again we have senior ministers stomping on the public’s desire to get away on holiday after the good news from just two days ago.”
Paul Charles, who is leading the Save Our Summer campaign involving hundreds of holiday firms, told the Independent newspaper: “The public have taken the prime minister at his word and are working on the restart of travel on 17 May.
“It’s a pity the home secretary wishes to return to the days of ministers contradicting each other. Her duty as an elected MP is to help the sector recover, not dilute it and see jobs disappear.”
A spokesperson for Abta, the travel association, told the Independent: “You can book a summer holiday now with confidence by booking a package holiday through an Abta member, and many travel companies are also offering additional flexibility to take into account the ongoing uncertainty created by the pandemic.”
23 comments
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A tv station in Mallorca asked for Donations and we sent stuff over together with our friends in Germany. The Spanish requested nappies for older children - when my wife asked why they said because the kids have started wetting the bed AGAIN. This comes from stress. Most families receiving donations are hospitality workers. Do t tell me people have money and are fine. Summer holidays aside, there’s clearly issues.
Alf, apologies if what I was trying to state came across the wrong way, and thank you for your respectful response. That's exactly how different opinions should be voiced. I was trying to say that if the Balearic government state that Mallorca is safe for both tourists and residents, then why not welcome tourists? It does seem there is a lot of stereotyping of Brits on here, and maybe for good reason, but there of a lot of good, honest and respectful British families who holiday in Mallorca and contribute a lot to the local economy. It just appears that the majority of expats commenting are retired in Mallorca, thus have no problem with a lack of tourism as it doesn't effect them. For the record, we're based in Monaco and the lack of tourism over the last 12 months or so has even had a major effect here, so I doubt that any European tourist-friendly destinations are happy to wait another year before welcoming tourists again. If it's safe there's no problem. I do agree that Mallorcan's should be offered the vaccination before the tourists come back so we'll just have to see how things go. Take care.
Sooo scared Martin. You sound like a big lump of uneducated lard. Well done to you for owning 2 properties. Not bad for a thicko from Dagenham. No doubt they aren't very nice properties. Maybe you mean't to buy one property but the maths got difficult and you ended up with two.
The USA and the UK are the only two countries that do not export vaccines. They hord them for their own population only. While it seems the only thing the press and Brits write about is their internal concern about holidays , stoked by cash hungry cheap airlines , the destinations they wish to go too like Greece and Spain all have low signal digit vaccination percentages. So even if all of the Uk was vaccinated by summer, it still does not mean all brits can go to all their holiday destinations as the risk of reinfection, and carrying Covid back with them even if vaccinated will be too large for politicians to be able to ignore.
Just start rolling out the vaccine! That’s what everyone wants to hear locals & tourists then you can all get back to normal!
Phil I am a big boy who happens to own 2 properties on the island and am actually there now perhaps you’d Like to meet up just to see how big a tea totaler is and please wear a mask as the crap that comes from your mouth is like the sewage that runs down the beach
So Trevor, vaccinated people are only 20% likely to be able to pass covid on. Therefore if mallorca has 5 million visitors then we are letting in approximately 1 million potential superspreaders each year onto a resident population of one million. Cheers mate, guess I'll run for the hills.
Please can we raise the tone in the level of comments submitted. And why is no one moderating them editorially? Reading them just (again) shows the Brits to be mindless, ignorant, rude, uneducated, selfish louts. And the Newspaper down in the gutter press for publishing this stuff. Mallorca does not need any of you here, with or without your jabs.
Trev, in Mallorca, they are always figuring out how to stop antisocial booze filled drunken holidays in places like Magaluf. I've got the answer, ban flights to Palma from Cardiff. Simple boyo.
We have booked for late May and also July, surely we need some positivity regarding summer holidays rather than Priti Patels usual doom and gloom.