So, the Association of Hotel Chains has come up with the idea of a “test” from mid-June. This test would involve there being two flights from Germany with reduced numbers of tourists so that protocols at airports, etc. could be checked out.
If everything goes smoothly, then there could be German tourism lift-off in July. Well, some sort of lift-off anyway.
This is just one of any number of schemes being dreamt up to try and get tourism going.
In Andalusia, the hoteliers have the idea for discounts. Up to the tenth of July (from whatever starting-point), the discount would be 35%. After this, and until the end of August, the discount would be 15%.
As incentives go, it’s something, while the offer may also reflect a view that holidaymakers are going to be particularly price-sensitive, having suffered reductions in and loss of income. Perhaps. But if people have been badly affected, the last thing they are likely to want to spend money on is a holiday - discount or no discount. Price-sensitivity doesn’t even enter the equation.
Ah yes, but as the sages of tourism consumerism will point out, a holiday is a necessity, not a luxury. Maybe so, but then one’s health is also a necessity, and a somewhat less materialistic one. Good luck to Andalusia and anywhere else with incentives, but one suspects that it will take rather more than a discount to get things moving, even were the Association of Hotel Chains’ test to prove successful.