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More than 95% of Gold Medal bookings for 2021

More than 95% of current Gold Medal bookings are for holidays in 2021, according managing director Lisa McAuley.

Speaking on a Travel Weekly webcast, McAuley, said: “There are destinations that are still selling. So the Maldives, the Caribbean; there are still bookings coming through for this final quarter for the Caribbean.

“But even if you look at somewhere like Barbados [that moved the UK to a ‘high-risk’ category], then that causes another operational challenge for you.

“Right now we are still selling and trading is, I’m going to say okay, but what does okay mean in the current climate? We are taking bookings, but now what I’m seeing is 95%, in fact, it’s probably even higher, is into 2021.”

McAuley added that a handful of agents Gold Medal has been working closely with had asked not to be sent any offers for departures before April next year.

She said: “At the start of this, we were having really good success in terms of re-bookings. And, I would say June, July time, we were probably seeing about 25% into the back end of this year, October half-term and Christmas, and then 75% into 2021.”

But she had “seen a dip” when Spain was removed from the government’s safe list – despite being primarily a long-haul tour operator.

She added: “For me, that was just an indicator that you’ve just absolutely squashed any consumer confidence that there was in travel per se.”

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