Western Med hotels would be ‘foolish’ to hike prices amid Iran war, says Jet2 chief

Hoteliers in the western Mediterranean would be “foolish to try and profit” from the Iran war by hiking prices, according to the chief executive of Jet2.

Speaking to Travel Weekly as the airline and tour operator launched its long-awaited service from Gatwick Airport, Steve Heapy reinforced his belief that demand for the eastern Mediterranean will return following a dent in consumer confidence caused by the conflict.

“The market will respond to a reduction in tension in the Middle East and we will see people wanting to go away,” said Heapy, who added: “I think hoteliers in the western Mediterranean would be foolish to try and profit from this and put their rates up, because the eastern Mediterranean will come roaring back.

“I’m very optimistic for both the western and eastern Mediterranean.”

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Heapy pointed to how the travel sector has repeatedly bounced back from global events that have hit confidence throughout his career in the aviation industry, such as the financial crash and the Covid pandemic.

“There’s always something and the same thing always happens – confidence reduces a little bit and bookings slow down for a while, but then things start to get right again and people think, ‘Wow, I need to go on holiday’.

“I’m very confident that things will rebound and return to normal.”

While acknowledging that “it’s very bad what’s happening right now [in the Middle East]”, Heapy urged the mainstream media to avoid sensationalist reporting when covering the conflict as he highlighted the distance of popular tourist destinations in Cyprus and Turkey from the war.

“Paphos is 1,600 kilometres from Iran; Izmir is 1,940 kilometres away from it – that’s like Malaga to Edinburgh. It’s a question of education around geography,” he said.