The impact of Covid 19 on UK group tour operations

This paper sets out to analyse the impact of the Covid-19 virus on the holidays provided by UK group tour operators. With tourism arrivals expected to fall by up to 30% in 2020 and the industry possibly suffering the loss of up to 100 million travel-related jobs (World Travel and Tourism, Council 2020), group tour operators will need to assess and possibly change the way they do business to initially survive and subsequently build up tourism numbers in the coming years. This paper identifies how group tour operators could alter their holiday proposition to reassure travellers including; the challenges of operating international tours when airlines have reduced capacity, the need to consider alternative age demographics who are more likely to travel and assessing existing itineraries to visit rural or small town locations rather than cities where numerous itineraries travel to now. Finally, the paper discusses and describes the significance of the findings with insights about possible opportunities based upon the approaches taken by various countries to target potential holidaymakers and the need to create a ‘crisis management plan’ for current and future countries. This may result in operational adjustments to meet these new requirements including; the changing outlook of potential customers and the possibility of offering domestic tours to meet the current demand