Covid travel: Omicron hitting holiday bookings, says Tui - BBC News
Winter bookings especially are slowing down as Omicron variant spreads, holiday giant says.
The pace of holiday bookings is slowing down after the emergence of the Omicron coronavirus variant, holiday giant Tui has said.

Reports of higher infection rates are also putting a dampener on bookings, especially for this winter, Tui said.

Despite this, it expects bookings for next summer to be close to pre-pandemic levels.

New UK travel rules to try to prevent the spread of the Omicron variant came into effect on Tuesday.

The changes include include pre-departure tests for people arriving in the UK, while 11 African countries have been put on the red list for travel.

The travel industry warned on Monday that the new rules would be a "hammer blow" and that livelihoods would be "devastated".

Tui said it had 4.1 million bookings for its next winter and summer seasons, with 1.4 million bookings since 3 October.

However, it said: "The increased media coverage of rising incident rates and the emergence of new Omicron variant has weakened this positive momentum, particularly for winter."

Winter bookings were returning to pre-pandemic levels before "recent news coverage" of the pandemic, Tui said.

Over the past week, a quarter of Tui holidays booked for December had been postponed to a later date, it told the BBC.

The holiday firm narrowed its loss before tax to €71m (£60.5m) in the fourth quarter of the year to 30 September, compared with a loss in the same period last year of €836m.

It didn't say how much it expected to make next year.

After such a tumultuous couple of years for the travel industry, businesses are pinning their hopes on a strong 2022 summer season. There's been some optimism in the air.

However, the uncertainty around Omicron has prompted fears of a hit to consumer confidence, especially as a result of the re-introduction of temporary rules around international travel - with the UK bringing back the red list and extra Covid testing requirements.

So far it's short-term bookings being affected.

The real problem will arise if people who might normally make their summer holiday booking after Christmas or in January decide not to.

The industry will be crossing its fingers that the bumper summer it needs does still come to pass.

Tui chief executive Friedrich Joussen said that uncertainty over travel restrictions was "annoying".

"Overnight you get new rules," he said. "You have gone on vacation thinking nothing can happen, then tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands of people have new rules and that is difficult."

He called on the government to give the travel industry more notice about upcoming rule changes.

Mr Joussen added that Tui partially subsidises the costs of PCR tests, which has some financial impact on the business.

While Omicron symptoms have so far been mild, there are early signs it is more transmissible than the Delta variant.

Following the new UK border restrictions brought in after the emergence of Omicron, more than one in eight UK tourism firms that cater for foreign visitors have had cancellations or expect to have them in the run-up to Christmas, industry body UKInbound said.

It said a survey of its members suggested "green shoots of recovery" had been "put on hold".

Its chief executive Joss Croft said: "Although thoroughly depressing, these results are not surprising.

"International consumer confidence to travel to the UK has taken another huge hit, and the UK's kneejerk decisions and lack of support for businesses that bear the consequences, means the recovery of this industry has already been derailed."

He added that firms needed "emergency support" and that they had "no wiggle room left".

"The summer season was all but lost for them, they have depleted their cash reserves and maxed out loans," he said.