Gibraltar has had a “very good summer” according to tourism minister Vijay Daryanani, as the country benefited from British tourism throughout the summer months.
Speaking to Travel Weekly as part of this year’s virtual World Travel Market, the minister said: “We’ve generally had a very good summer. We’ve had people visiting from the UK, we’ve had people visiting across our frontier with Spain.”
“Even during times when other destinations and other airlines were operating at maybe 30-40% occupancy, we’ve had an occupancy of 75-80% from the UK,” he added. “Fortunately, we have done very well.”
Although he noted that this is “in comparison to the situation we find ourselves in, you cannot compare to figures from 2019.”
Daryanani said that, due to the travel corridor list, holidaymakers who may not have considered Gibraltar before visited the British Overseas Territory.
He also praised the handling of the crisis, with Gibraltar reporting no Covid-19 related deaths.
Meanwhile, Gibraltar has put health and safety measures in place for when cruises restart to the destination.
“We are waiting to hear from the major cruise companies,” said Daryanani. “We have all the health protocols in place so the moment… they can start cruising and that they can start cruising in the Mediterranean, we will be ready. We will be ready when they are.”