Transport

Tour operator TUI cancels beach holidays for Irish customers until mid-May

Company also cancelled some cruise packages until the end of May

An empty terrace at the beach in Santander, Spain. Photograph: EPA/Roman G Aguilera

Wed Apr 8 2020 - 11:12

TUI Group, Europe’s biggest tour operator, said beach holidays for its Irish and British customers would be cancelled until mid-May due to travel restrictions caused by coronavirus and uncertainty about when those will end.

The Irish Government is currently advising against all non-essential travel overseas, including to Britain, indefinitely. This includes all cruise ship travel.

The UK changed its travel guidance on April 4th, advising against all non-essential global travel indefinitely. Previously Britons had been told to avoid global travel for 30 days from March 17th.

TUI said on Wednesday that beach holidays for UK and Irish customers travelling up to and including May 14th would no longer operate, while Marella cruise holidays would be cancelled until May 31st, and a river cruise unit would delay launching until November 26th.

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“We are constantly monitoring the situation and will start taking people on holiday again as soon as we are able to do so. At this point in time nobody can accurately predict when that will be,” said a TUI spokesman.

The UK’s second largest holiday company Jet2 said in a statement on Tuesday that its holidays and flights would not now restart until June 17th. – Reuters

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