Current situation

New UK Lockdown to take effect from Thursday 5th November to Wednesday 2nd December.

- Advised to stay at home if you can
- Only leave for exercise or essential work (ie construction, medical or supermarket key workers)
- Avoid all travel in the UK, hotels will close and some remain for business travel
- No international travel during lockdown, however if you are abroad already you can continue your holiday
- Schools, colleges, shops for essential needs only remain open

After 2nd December the 3 tier local lockdown due to continue or possibly 4 tiers if there is still areas over very high and they will need to remain on a full lockdown

Tier 1 - Medium Risk (Most of the southern part country are in medium risk areas with 20 cases per 100,000 or less)
- Current measures apply Hands, face, Space
- Rule of six applies indoors and outdoors
- Closure of hospitality venues at 10pm

Tier 2 - High
- Household mixing banned indoors
- rule of six applies outdoors only
- Most restricted areas now enter this tier (Manchester, Newcastle, Yorkshire)

Tier 3 - Very High
- Social mixing is banned indoors and outdoors
- pubs and bars to be closed in this area
- Retail, schools and universities remain open
- Liverpool will go into this very high lockdown on Thursday 15th

Quarantine rules: Travel corridors were introduced in the Summer to help consumers make informed decisions on where to go on holiday without the 14 day quarantine. There are very few countries including some Greek Islands you can visit without having to quarantine in the UK when you return.

Most countries are changing their rules for the UK to reflect the growing number of cases in the UK and fit to fly testing is required as well as some sort of rapid testing or quarantine

Track and trace app was introduced in September to check-in to bars, restaurants, hair salons etc. If you get an alert that someone has had the virus when you were in the vicinity you could be asked to quarantine. If you break it the app can see and there are £1000 fines.

See below:
https://www.gov.uk/guidance/coronavirus-covid-19-travel-corridors

Flights:

Finnair are flying daily from UK to Helsinki October onwards
LHR-HEL - 2 flight per day
MAN-HEL - 2 flights per day
EDI-HEL - 3 x weekly
DUB-HEL - 5 x daily flights

Direct flights are still in place from December to March to Kittlia and Ivalo

Norwegian are flying 3 times a week from 2nd November 2020 LGW RVN
Norwegian are now flying daily from April 2021 - LGW - HEL

Easyjet flying 2 x week from 25th November - March LGW RVN
2 x week 25 November - 4 Jan MAN RVN

TUI are flying 4 times a week from LGW/MAN/EMA to KTT Dec / IVL/KUO/RVN 2 times a week

Consumer behaviour

Consumer confidence continues to fall, although many bookings were made since the announcement of new corridors with Canary Islands and The Maldives. Operators have been booking well until mid-September when consumer confidence fell due to second wave of pandemic. Consumers are frustrated by travel quarantine restrictions. Many cannot self isolate on return of their holiday.

As soon as a country is taken off the quarantine list and added as a travel corridor then a sharp rise in searches happens. Last minute bookings are rising and there is a pent up travel demand since all these living restrictions have been put in place

Barclaycard estimates 23% of households have put cash into savings instead of spending on a foreign holiday this summer.

Economic situation is not good as many furloughed employees have been made redundant - this is not good for the travel industry and staff looking after marketing and more other roles and responsibilities

• A 12-month business rates holiday for all eligible retail, leisure and hospitality businesses in England
• The Retail, Hospitality and Leisure Grant Fund
• A temporary reduction in the VAT rate from 20% to 5% on most tourism and hospitality-related

Coronavirus and the Latest Indicators for the UK Economy

The results of the latest results of the ONS's ongoing series on the impact of Coronavirus on the UK economy. The key tourism-related findings in this publication is that:

• 61% of accommodation and food businesses say that profits have decreased while just 7% report that it has increased. This compares with the average of 43% of all businesses recording a decrease and is the highest of any sector surveyed.
• 34% of accommodation and food businesses say they have less than 3 months reserves, and a further 6% state that they have no reserves at all compared to 24% and 4% for UK businesses as a whole.
• 25% of accommodation and food businesses are not confident that they will survive the next three months

Future outlook

Sustainability, wellness holidays - meditation, yoga, de-stress, mind therapy, rise of camping and self-catering accommodation / mobile homes / glamping / villas, family holidays, fly-drives, multi-centre and multi-country travel - to make up for lost time, train travel / cycling,  adventure /activities holidays.

Key findings from new research

• Consumers are feeling worried but optimistic about travelling and holidays
• Travelling by car more, less by buses and planes
• Stress relief, health and wellbeing are more and more important. Many will travel to reconnect with their passions
• 2020 holidays will be a way to socialise with family and friends
• Beach quality and food offer remain top destination choice factors
• School holidays timing remains crucial
• People will look to book the holidays and travel almost immediately after the booking is made.
• Holiday money is already set aside
• Hygiene level of the venue / hotel will be extremely important
• 8 in 10 are interested in an option called “coronavirus guarantee”

Research has told us the 20-30 age group will start travelling first due to more immunity and mild symptoms so there is no fear. It is predicted they take low-cost airlines that are starting up. Families and couples under 60 are also keen to travel and Operators have confirmed lots of family bookings. Luxury market remains mostly unaffected and there will be in a stronger financial position to travel.

Social impact of Coronavirus:
The latest update to the Government's Social Impacts survey has been produced. The key findings are that:

• 37% of people said they would feel comfortable or very comfortable eating indoors at a restaurant. This is an increase from 34% last week, but it still shows that public confidence is a real issue.
• Of those adults who had left their homes this week, 21% said they had visited a café, pub or restaurant. While this a significant improvement from 10% who said this three weeks ago, it is again still very low.
• 14% of people reported that they were worried about possible job losses, which will have implications for people's willingness to spend.

Winter 2020-21: I can report good bookings from the Operators for this period, mainly winter Lapland. Finnair has reported good capacity on its winter routes December/January, however since the good but poorly executed Lapland travel plan for 23rd November has been very damaging and many customers cancelling, especially groups and families. Finnair is suffering from high rate of cancellations and are holding off payments with Operators to wait for the 2nd test/quarantine instructions. Ski bookings look to be last minute and reducing resorts for next season.

Finland's USP's are wide open spaces, nature and clean water, air, northern lights, wildlife, safe country to travel, close proximity to UK, sustainable, unique accommodation

Travel trade update

With new national lockdown the travel industry are forced to keep workers on Furlough for another month. The Travel trade are working from home or have been furloughed until June/July. (Top Management running the operations in this case). Casulaties are STA Travel, Cox & Kings, Destinology and other firms who have not been able to survive in this difficult enviroment.
Some luxury travel companies have been booking up to 2022 and Hotelplan are promoting winter 21/22 for forward bookings. Some travel companies like Regent are really going the extra mile with new itineraries , social media and journalist visiting Lapland, also highlighting 72 hours or less trips to Finland

Lapland is still very much in demand and popular from the UK. Luxury segment in demand from UK customers wanting bucket list accommodation and experiences.

Lakeland has been popular and products in the west and east of the Lakeland. Tampere/Turku by train. In fact train travel could be an interesting angle for 2021 to pursue.

Fly-drives we added product last year so travellers are able to start from Helsinki and explore the other destinations. Helsinki and the national parks, attractions, regions surrounding have been in demand. Activity holidays - recent enquiries from VIP stags in Helsinki, high-end fishing and wellness holidays.

With more Brits connecting with nature on their doorstep I think wildlife, outdoors and nature will be top of mind.

Updated 2.11.