Readers’ petition delivered to The Sun

Travel Weekly has handed over its agents’ petition to The Sun calling on the newspaper to tell its readers the real facts about why holidays are more expensive during school breaks than the rest of the year.

Agents responded in huge numbers to The Sun’s allegation that the travel industry is ripping off the British holidaymaker with unfair prices during the school holidays.

Travel Weekly editor Richard Siddle said: “The Sun is read by more than 10 million people a day, and whether we like it or not, people believe what it says. The response from our readers shows how strongly this sector feels about standing up for what it believes in.”

ABTA, which bore the brunt of The Sun’s allegations, said: “Too often the travel industry gets an unfair knocking on this issue, so it’s great Travel Weekly has taken the common-sense arguments directly to The Sun’s door.”

The Sun’s editor Rebekah Wade refused to publicly accept the Travel Weekly petition and we were forced instead to hand it in at its Wapping headquarters in London.

A Sun insider told Travel Weekly: “We like giving it out. But we don’t like taking it back.” The Sun said it received one of its biggest responses of the year to its petition with up to 5,000 replies.

Siddle said: “This can’t be the end of the matter. The Sun may be wrong, but it has touched a nerve with its readers. The industry needs to address the public’s perception, fuelled by such Sun initiatives, that school holidays are too expensive.”