A Cornish travel agent is taking advantage of the area’s dreadful summer weather to make sales to disgruntled holidaymakers staying in the area.
Newell’s Travel owner Roger Hawke said all of his 11 shops in the southwest network have taken enquiries from angry Brits on holiday in Cornwall. One of the network’s flagship stores in Truro is handling about three enquiries a day.
Staff at the Truro branch have already booked two families in the last week. One of these gave up on their UK holiday after four days in favour of a £1,500 seven-day trip to Ibiza departing from Birmingham airport.
Hawke said: “The last time we had anything like this was about 10 or 15 years ago during a really bad summer.”
However, not all the hapless holidaymakers were able to book themselves an escape.
Helen Hawke, wife and business partner of Roger, added: “Only yesterday, 10 people turned up in their wellies, desperate to get away.
“Unfortunately, as they had already paid for one holiday to Cornwall, we were not able to get them away as their budget wouldn’t stretch that far.”
A Met Office spokesman said in the first 17 days of August 106mm of rain – 127% of the monthly average – had fallen in Cornwall, while the mean daytime temperature had been 1.5C below the 19.5C average.
If the month continues with similar weather across the UK, it could break the record for the wettest August in history. That occurred in 1912 when 193mm of rain fell in one place.