Not many Dutch people will be seen on the slopes this Christmas holiday. Travel organizations TUI and Sunweb see the number of bookings for winter sports holidays in the Christmas period fall sharply. “There is hardly any booking for the Christmas holidays,” said a spokesman for TUI.
Italy and France will keep the ski areas closed for the coming period due to the corana virus. Austria wants to restart winter sports after the lockdown until December 6. Switzerland is also not planning to close the slopes around Christmas.
TUI sees that people are cautious about travel advice. “If they go to yellow, we expect a large last-minute question,” says the spokeswoman. “We see from the search query on our website that people are looking forward to a winter sports holiday.”
“The wish is certainly there, but hardly any bookings are made for the Christmas holidays.” TUI and Sunweb do not offer holidays to countries with an orange travel advice, such as Austria, Switzerland, France and Italy at the moment.
Advocate of the travel industry ANVR confirms this. “In any case, no trips are organized to countries with code orange, so even if you had booked one, it will not be carried out,” says an ANVR spokesperson. scratching your ears whether such a holiday is worth ignoring all the rules “.
About fifteen to twenty thousand winter sports enthusiasts have already booked a holiday at Sunweb for the period up to and including the Christmas holidays. “Compared to previous years, that’s about a third. Every day we receive about 10 percent of the bookings we normally receive,” said a spokeswoman.
Winter sports holidays are generally organized directly and not through a travel agency. Only 35 percent goes through a travel organization.
Austria is the most popular destination
Austria, which has not yet announced that it will close the slopes for Christmas, is the main ski destination for Sunweb. “So we are still hopeful, because about 60 percent of families travel there.”
Prime Minister Mark Rutte recently called for not to go on holiday abroad at least until mid-January. Sunweb states that real winter sports enthusiasts have less understanding of not traveling. “Outdoor sports is healthy, people travel with their own transport and stay in an apartment. So winter sports enthusiasts are increasingly wondering what is better and healthier than going on a winter sports holiday.”
An opinion poll conducted by the Markteffect agency last week shows that three quarters of the Dutch find it irresponsible for people to go on holiday abroad this winter. Half believe that more measures are needed to prevent the spread of the corona virus.
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