Nicola Sturgeon tells Scottish families not to book holidays for October break

Scotland’s First Minister Nicola Sturgeon has urged Scottish families not to book overseas holidays during the October break in a further blow to the beleaguered travel industry.

Her comments were immediately slammed by the vice president of the Scottish Passenger Agents Association Mike Tibbert, who described them as ‘wholly gratuitous and extremely damaging’.

In her address to the Scottish parliament this afternoon, Ms Sturgeon said travel abroad should be avoided unless ‘essential’.

She warned that there was a possibility of a temporary ‘circuit break’ lockdown over the school break, raising the spectre of holiday cancellations.

Sturgeon wants families to holiday at home during the October break

The ‘circuit break’ measure was first suggested by Prime Minister Boris Johnson as a tactic to bring coronavirus cases under control. Addressing media speculation that this could be timed to concide with the October school break, Ms Sturgeon said: "The Scottish Government has not made any decision at this stage to implement such a policy, but we are actively keeping under review.

"What I would say to people now is this: please think of the October break as an opportunity to further limit social interaction and given that this is a global pandemic, please do not book travel overseas for the October break if it is not essential."

But the SPAA’s Mike Tibbert said: This year has been catastrophic for travel agents and the entire travel sector and today’s comments could well be the final nail in its coffin.

"It’s utterly short sighted to consider that this story ends with our members having had no 2020 income, but the stark facts are that, without immediate and targeted stimulus for the travel sector, Scotland will lose its global connectivity as airlines cut routes. It’s no idle warning. It is probable, that loss of connections would cause irreversible long-term damage to our whole economy.

"It’s becoming ever clearer that our entire travel sector – and consequently our economy – is in real and immediate jeopardy. This is absolutely no exaggeration, yet there appears to be no support either at ground or strategic level to prevent this.

"Indeed, we seem to have government announcements actively designed to destroy travel jobs and the whole industry when there are destinations which it is safe to travel to such as Turkey.

"It’s clear that the financial model of the travel industry is neither understood nor differentiated from the domestic hospitality and tourism sector. Travel agents have had virtually no income at all in 2020, as, even for holidays booked prior to the initial lockdown, travel agents will have had no income at the time of booking. Many have had negative income due to the level of refunds and the credit card charges they have been obliged to process; some of these before they were refunded by the airline or travel operator. Increased job losses are on the horizon for the whole sector."

Ms Sturgeon’s comments were made as part of her update to MSPs on the latest measures being introduced to try to limit the spread of coronavirus, including a ban on visits between households across Scotland from tomorrow.
 

Which? Travel Editor Rory Boland said:"While the advice for people in Scotland not to book holidays abroad over the October break may be sensible to prevent further spread of the virus, it does not help those who have already booked a holiday, many of whom will have done so several months ago.
 

"These people face losing out as airlines remain free to ignore the advice and pocket customers’ money.
 

"There cannot be one rule for holidaymakers and another for airlines. If people are being asked not to travel, then airlines should be made to provide rebooking at no additional cost or refund options to their customers, to prevent them from being left out of pocket or putting public health at risk by taking a holiday they can’t afford to cancel."