We’re all going on an autumn holiday?

By Andrew Adie

Summer 2021: Words can express what I feel about it but I’d be fired if I used them.

Constant grey skies and rain, sky-rocketing prices, packed beaches and even busier roads, empty shelves and endless queues.

What could have been a gift for UK tourism, selling the best of this country to a captive audience, has turned into an advert for foreign holidays.

Those that regularly opt for staycations have complained about the crowds, those that holiday abroad have despaired about the climate, and they’re the lucky ones as many haven’t been able to find or afford anywhere to go at all.

So, brace yourself for autumn and the October half term, the new summer holiday season, when anyone with savings or a credit card is likely to be getting on a plane to anywhere that is open, warm and vaguely cheerful.  Sales for holidays in ‘Green List’ countries have reportedly soared while UK holiday companies still have vacancies and unsold holidays (not something that was the case over the summer season).

And for those that stay in the UK, or take a staycation, what will it look like by then?

Cornwall now has some of the highest Covid case numbers in the UK, with Visit Cornwall urging tourists to stay away unless they have pre-booked holidays.

Having recently returned from a week in Cornwall (it wasn’t my fault, honest) I can report that it was extremely busy but with shops, restaurants, pubs and even the chip shop closed or operating a significantly reduced capacity due to their staff having to self-isolate having been pinged.

The shops were obviously struggling to fill shelves as a mixture of demand and truck driver shortages impacted supplies and the general atmosphere was one of gritted-teethed gloom. It was busy but you didn’t get the impression that anyone was making a lot of money. It was a logistical nightmare that was being endured to repair balance sheets that had been ravaged by lockdown.

As the summer-that-never-was moves into an autumn of grim news and global challenges, the issues facing the UK aren’t going to vanish like the leaves on the trees. The logistics and supply issues we’re seeing now appear to be the tip of a very large iceberg, with predictions of higher prices and shortages for key Christmas treats and toys already being made.

We’re also not out of the woods in terms of economic recovery from the Covid lock-down. The weaning-off from fiscal support will begin in earnest, COP26 will lead to a world having to step up and decarbonise to avoid irreversible climate change and the situation in Afghanistan is likely to remain grim. Perhaps the less-than-block-buster summer was a reminder that we need to keep grafting not get carried away on false hopes of an end to a challenging two years.

Which brings us back to the ‘Autumn holidays’. Visit Cornwall is urging tourists to consider less popular parts of the county, there is also reportedly an increase in people looking at options including house swaps and in spring this year we saw reports of a ‘long summer’ with people having already pre-booking holidays for September – November.

Traditionally August bank holiday marks the start of a new season of work, this year it could be just the ‘end of the beginning’ for the great UK ‘non-summer’ getaway. Let’s hope for some autumnal sun.