What is a staycation holiday?
A staycation refers to a vacation where you stay at home. This can mean either staying in and enjoying your local area during annual leave or trips in and around your country that can include overnight stays. The UK is seeing a rise in such holidays due to a variety of factors including the cost of living crisis, rail strikes, and airline delays. This can inevitably have an effect on the hospitality, leisure, and travel industries.
The rise of the UK Staycation:
Staycations are on the rise in the UK, as summer draws in, people look for ways to spend their hard-earned money on down-time and leisure. With the current cost of living crisis affecting fuel and food costs, rail strikes, and airline delays, it seems that a likely trend throughout the rest of this year and perhaps beyond will be UK citizens choosing to holiday within their own country and likely closer to their place of residence.
Bookings for staycations are rocketing as Brits are aiming to avoid unbearable airport queues and flight cancellations. Firms have reported a surge in the demand for UK breaks over those of overseas getaways.
The Express Online reports that the most sought-after UK destination is Blackpool and Google searches for UK holiday destinations are up 23% year on year, and 14% higher than in May. The overall demand for UK staycations is just 6% lower than summer 2020 levels where people could not visit abroad due to Covid restrictions. You can read more about this here.
iNews reports that staycation hotspots like Cornwall are expected to experience another boom this year. Holidaymakers are being urged to book activities in advance due to the rise in demand linked to the airport chaos.
Why the issues in the aviation industry?
The UK aviation industry has been hit by a number of issues in the last few years, including staff shortages, the after effects of covid19, and Brexit.
The effects of these issues can be seen with the number of delayed flights and canceled flights increasing. This is affecting holidays abroad as people are either delayed on their way to their destination or they are unable to make it at all.
Staff shortages have been an issue for many years now and this is only getting worse as more people leave the industry due to low pay, long hours and poor conditions. Brexit and Covid also contributed to staffing shortages within the airline industry.
The effect on the hospitality and transport sectors:
With the cost of living crisis, rail strikes, and flight delays, it’s no wonder that staycations are on the rise. But how will this affect the hospitality and transport sectors?
Well it can have mixed effects. While more people will be staying in the UK, less people will be traveling either by rail, plane, or even by car due to fuel prices. This will have an impact on the transport sector but less of an impact on local hospitality businesses.
However, in light of the recent rail strikes in June, hospitality bosses warned of the catastrophic effects. A massive drop in bookings came as a result of 40,000 Network Rail Staff striking. You can read more about this here.
Furthermore, there are likely to be airline strikes across Europe throughout summer. This comes as a result of staff shortages and stagnating pay since the pandemic. This comes after the previous nightmares faced by British holidaymakers in recent weeks as a result of delays, cancellations, and missing luggage at the UK’s busiest airports.
Workers at Heathrow have voted to strike in a dispute over pay. It is estimated that around 700 workers could walk out between July and September after the airline failed to restore a pay cut imposed during the pandemic.
The UK is not the only European country facing airline strikes, France, Spain, Italy, Germany, and Scandinavia have also voted to strike over pay and conditions.
You can read more about this here.
Quotes:
Andrew Raphaely, Managing Director at 365 Business Finance, commented:
“Staycations are becoming ever more popular, which is great news for businesses in the UK, however the impact of transport strikes, the rising costs of energy and the prospect of a reduction in household disposable income all point to the need for greater support. Revenue-based funding is one way in which businesses can get access to working capital without impacting their cashflow. Repayments are based on future credit and debit card sales, so businesses only repay when their customers pay them.”
Chris Preston, Sales Director for GCF noted:
“It is indeed an exciting outlook for the UK home stay and hospitality sector for the reasons outlined above.
That aside, the sector itself is not immune to the challenges facing the UK economy and operators will need to keep close control of overheads at the same time as dealing with the increasing challenge presented by the recruitment/ staff shortages. At the same time, clientele have ever increasing expectations and choices.
Generally speaking lenders have a positive appetite for the sector which is encouraging and we are assisting many clients with their plans both to improve and expand. Always happy to help explore options.”
How we can help:
If your business is still feeling the after effects from Covid19, impacts in supply, and impacts from the travel delays then Goodman Corporate Finance has got you covered. By taking the time and confusion out of the funding process, we will manage the whole deal for you, from the moment you make the enquiry right up to the point where the funds have been released. With our handheld and cradle to grave service, we pride ourselves on putting you and your business first, with expert guidance.
We approach every new opportunity with ‘a blank sheet of paper’, offering a number of solutions for you to choose from. This unique approach means that you can choose the right solution for your situation. We put you at the centre of your own story.