Comment: Wishes for a safe Christmas and a New Year rebound

One of the national newspapers summed up the mood of many in the travel industry over the past weeks with a recent headline: It’s beginning to look a lot like (last) Christmas.

Once again, agents have been forced to deal with cancellations and credit card charges, uncertainty over travel restrictions impacting customer confidence and a government seemingly happy to focus its support on a limited number of sectors.

Yet despite an understandable sense of frustration and a feeling of déjà-vu, we must cling on to the fact that the industry is in a very different place to 12 months ago and is better placed to regain a sense of momentum when the wind turns in its favour again.

The emergence of the Omicron variant and subsequent restrictions have curbed the enthusiasm of those who naively believed the pandemic was coming to an end.

But the vaccine rollout and an accelerated booster programme offer hope that its impact will be short-lived enough to still allow for a strong year in 2022.

The outlook for next year and beyond is analysed in detail in the tenth Travel Weekly Insight Annual Report, and I would urge anyone running a business to download your free copy of this 60-page resource at travelweeklyinsight.co.uk.

We have now published our final print edition of the year, and I sincerely hope that your only weekly travel trade magazine has been a source of support and valuable information over the course of another tumultuous year.

As always, we will continue to deliver our market-leading news coverage on travelweekly.co.uk until we return in print from January 6.

Until then, the entire Travel Weekly team joins me in wishing you all a safe and peaceful Christmas as we hope for better times for all in the new year.