High-net-worth individuals are booking a variety of alternative destinations to the Middle East following the outbreak of war in the region, which also continues to affect onward travel to the Indian Ocean, Asia, Australia and New Zealand.
Many are booking for the Caribbean instead – with high-end resorts like Anse Chastanet in St Lucia proving particularly popular.
However, with long-haul airfares soaring, others are ‘discovering’ exclusive destinations closer to home in places like Spain and Greece.
Janine Marshall, founder of JLT Group, said most of her customers were choosing to travel to Europe instead, with the Canary Islands a top choice.
Lizzie Adamson-Brown of Isle of Man-based health and wellness specialist Rhythm & Routes said her clients were also staying closer to home.
“People are discovering new places in Europe because they can’t go to Asia,” said Lizzie. “We are looking for special, off-the-beaten track destinations that we didn’t know existed before we were forced to look for alternatives to south-east Asia.”
As an example, Lizzie said she’d booked some clients due to travel longhaul via the Middle East to Euphoria Retreat in Kalamata, Greece instead.
“In fact, our bookings for Greece have rocketed and we’ve also booked lots of places in Italy, using operators like CV Villas, ITC, Audley, Carrier and If Only,” she added.
While the cost of European holidays has gone up over the past two weeks, that’s not necessarily deterring customers, said Lizzie. “It simply creates an urgency to book. We are using that to encourage customers to lock in their holidays for next year.”
Louise Napier, co-founder of The Little Big Travel Company in Market Harborough, Leicestershire, said the agency had lost only one booking as a result of the Middle East crisis, having managed to re-route others via the US instead of the Middle East.
“Now we are getting more enquiries for places like Mauritius and the Caribbean,” said Louise.
“In terms of prices, they have shifted. Some of the Middle East routes are a quite cheap, because there is a risk, but fares to the Caribbean have gone up significantly.”
Louise, whose agency is a member of Protected Trust Services, said a quote she was working on for a holiday to Jamaica for a client who wanted to switch from Dubai went up from £13,000 to £17,000 in just two hours.
Her business partner Nigel Hamilton said a client who was due to fly to Kuala Lumpur in business class, via the Middle East, paid the same to travel in economy with Turkish Airlines.
“The sort of customers we have are adapting, so they are still going on holiday, but we haven’t had any new enquiries for travel to the Middle East, except for one customer who is travelling via Qatar in February.”
Louise said she was unsure when she would feel comfortable booking holidays to the Middle East as the agency has its own ATOL, so would be liable if there were any problems.
“I’d book a package with a tour operator if the client wanted to go, but I wouldn’t accept a flight and hotel booking at the moment and I can’t say when I would.”
However, Louise said she wasn’t concerned for the future of the business, which is just 18 months old. “We haven’t see a decline in enquiries, maybe because we are a low volume but high yield business.
“People are committed by the time they walk in the door and we have managed to adapt their expectations.”
