News of a breakthrough in the creation of a Covid vaccine this week was greeted with much fanfare – and rightly so.
But what does this mean for the beleaguered travel industry, which continues to weather a storm created by shifting travel corridors and an unhelpful 14-day quarantine policy.
Paul Charles, chief executive of travel consultancy The PC Agency, said: “The vaccine development is the fillip that the travel sector was needing; a small boost in confidence to show people that 2021 will be better.”
He added that across the industry summer 2021 bookings are starting to flow in, with the second half of the year likely to see a “boom in terms of overseas trips as well as staycations”.
Telegraph Cruise writer Dave Monk said: "A vaccine would be a huge boost for the cruise sector. Many older customers are still uncertain about sailing in the near future, even with all the Covid precautions that lines have introduced. They would be among the first groups of people to get access to the vaccine and would be keen to get back on board ‒ or, at least, book with confidence – as soon as they felt safe to do so."
Red Paxton, director at Habitat Escapes, said “news of the vaccine has seen a surge in bookings, we are up by 70% compared to the same time in 2019 and 60 percent have been multi-generational families.
CV Villas also saw a 76% increase in searches following the news, as well as a 40% increase in bookings.
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