Will 400,000 summer holiday bookings be in jeopardy? Irish travel agents are in great disappointment
DUBLIN: All Irish travel agents are frustrated with the latest COVID-19 restrictions. COVID-19 is becoming more widespread in Ireland and elsewhere. Travel agents say the situation will get worse than last year if it continues at this level.
They are worried that more than 400,000 summer holiday bookings could be in jeopardy. The agencies say that people who changed bookings last year to this year have started to demand refunds, fearing they would have to change again.
They also worry that the phone calls coming in to travel agencies now are to inform the cancellation of trips. The slow pace of widespread immunizations is also a problem.
Pat Dawson, head of the Irish Travel Agents Association (ITAA), said the overseas travel scene had collapsed due to COVID-19 restrictions. About half a million people had already booked in the summer, including those canceled last year.
More than 400,000 people had postponed bookings from 2020 to 2021. Now they have started contacting travel agents and tour operators again to cancel the trip.
“People really want to travel again but it is looking bleak and while I am not attributing blame it does seem as if there is no clear path there for any businesses,” Pat Dawson said.
Despite repeated requests to discuss issues in this area, Minister Eamon Ryan refused to even make an appointment. “We have had one zoom meeting with junior minister Hildegarde Naughton and that has been it,” he said.
Families who booked a vacation trip in mid-July do not seem to be able to make final decisions this late May or even early June.
“I had a group going to the Galápagos in June 2020 that was rescheduled to last October and then to June of this year”. Now looks like it may have to be rescheduled for a third time, a travel agent in Dublin said. He said people were happy last year to move the holidays to 2021 but a trend has changed since Christmas and more people are looking for a refund.
Holiday trips to India
Hundreds of travellers are also worried about having to travel to India to see their relatives back home and perform urgent duties after the trip was postponed last year.
Many travellers, including those from Kerala, will need to find a reason for this, as the authorities consider essential trips, including to see relatives and elderly parents, as ‘holiday.’ Some hospitals and nursing homes have taken the approach of denying leave to foreign nurses, including Indians, taking the government’s order as a weapon to avoid holidays.
If nursing organisations, like INMO, do not take immediate action, this management approach can be harmful to many.
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