Taking bookings for May 'clearly not commercially wise'

Speaking during Etoa’s Covid-19: UK Response webinar on Monday (6 April), Neil Baylis, Mishcon de Reya partner and head of travel, said he had heard of airlines taking bookings for flights as early as May, which he said could put them in a difficult position if it quickly becomes clear there was never any realistic prospect of customers and clients being able to travel owing to the coronavirus pandemic – and would likely just create more bad PR.

Baylis said while it was up to individual businesses to decide whether it was the right thing to do, taking bookings for May was clearly “high risk”. “There’s no legal obligation not to do it, but it’s not commercially wise at the moment,” he said.

Kurt Janson, director of the Tourism Alliance, told the webinar the updated guidance from the FCO – issued late on Saturday night (4 April) – clearly put travel businesses in a difficult position. “No one knows where they stand,” said Janson. “What does it mean for forward bookings and people trying to get bookings for next year?”

Janson said it was one of the issues the alliance would take up with Tourism Industry Emergency Response (Tier) group as a matter of urgency following a flurry of queries since the weekend.

Tier is a coalition of around 25 trade associations and businesses that inform and lobby the Tourism Industry Council, a collaboration between government and the tourism sector, on behalf of travel, feeding back concerns about any gaps in official government guidance.