Travel agents say it isGroundhog Day for the trade as they face thousands of canceled bookings and losses in card transaction fees.
December has been described as "utterly disastrous" as consumers believe there will be more government restrictions after Christmas.
Peter Cookson, chairman of Spear Travels, said the industry was experiencing high numbers of cancellation as it had done at the height of the Pandemic and was yet again invisible to the government.
Many of his company's clients were cancelling rather than rebooking, and just wanting their money back.
A great November was followed by an utterly disastrous December and a two week Christmas break, so January will be a damp squib. What will happen to the travel industry next year?
The merchant card transaction fees paid on bookings were being decried by agents. The fees are not returned to agents, but they are charged a small administration fee to process the client refunds.
Since Covid started, Spear has lost £40,000 in card fees. Cookson said it was iniquitous.
Lee Hunt said that the commission paid on a booking would normally cover the cost of card transaction fees, but agents lose out when sales are canceled. He said that a canceled booking for £8,300 has cost the agency almost $1 million in lost card fees.
He said that they were out of pocket.
Hunt said that more and more clients were cancelling because of restrictions in their country, or because of uncertainty, because they were testing positive for Covid.
He said that people will wait and see what happens. We have had a lot of canceled appointments. We are trying to pay back bounce-back loans, business rates, salaries, National Insurance and rent, because it takes us back to the height of Covid.
Hunt said that the problem was the lack of current cash flow and that they were trying to be as positive as they could and sending Christmas cards to clients and gifts to their top clients.
Full Circle Travel has lost more than £10,000 in transaction fees since the beginning of the Pandemic.
Douglas said that he had raised the issue with his MPs and Abta.
He said that there was a misconception among consumers that they had to pay the holiday balance by card in order to be financially protected. It doesn't matter how the full balance is paid if some money is paid on the credit card.
Transaction charges are an issue for agents, according to Advantage Travel Partnership. Kelly Cookes said that agents should speak to their provider to see if they can re-negotiate.
She said that consumers were travelling if they could, particularly if it meant meeting families and friends they had been separated from. In the last week, 13% of bookings were to leave. She said there is still a will to travel in a lot of cases.
The managing director of Haslemere Travel was more confident about the market despite having to move France ski bookings due to new destination entry restrictions.
She thinks people will want to go away even if the government introduces restrictions.
Most of our clients who are booked to go to the Caribbean in January and February are pragmatic and don't want to cancel.
