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Caribbean tourism well served despite XL closure

Caribbean tourism well served despite XL closure British holidaymakers wishing to take a break in the Caribbean are still "fairly well served" despite the closure of holiday operator XL, a leading expert has claimed recently.

XL Leisure Group, which contained a charter and scheduled airline as well as various tour operators, was placed in administration in June 2008.

The Association of Independent Tour Operators (AITO) has stated that popular winter destinations in the Caribbean were "better served" before the demise of XL.

However, Derek Moore, chairman of AITO, said that the Caribbean still proves consistently popular among British holidaymakers, alongside North Africa.

Mr Moore explained that British people often favour the Caribbean because of the "British influence" on the islands.

He said that this gives holidaymakers "a bit of a comfort blanket" that facilities and services will be good and that they are "guaranteed the good weather".

Mr Moore pointed out that "the hurricane season is over and there are some fantastic hotels" on the Caribbean islands.

He added that Brits are still "fairly well served" with flights from the UK to the Caribbean, although they "were better served before XL went bust".

Virgin Atlantic is currently celebrating ten years of flying to the Caribbean and is to mark this with a music festival in Barbados at the end of October.

The airline started operating flights from London Gatwick to Barbados, St Lucia and Antigua in September 1998.

According to research conducted by TNS for Travel Weekly, half of customers booking a holiday in the past year were confident that their break was covered by either ABTA or ATOL.

Nevertheless, 32 per cent reported being unsure if their holiday was properly covered and 60 per cent said they would pay £1 into a central fund to be used to cover flight bookings.


Travel Counsellors News posted on 03 October 2008

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