Taxi Driver Online

Game over for Olympics as Britons shun UK for sunshine

June 24th, 2012 17:56

Business in my local town of Soller in the north west of Majorca has never been better as an unexpected influx of holidaying Britons has arrived, snapping up attractive deals on hotel accommodation and rental properties in nearby mountain villages. The trend promises to continue as Britons take advantage of the strength of the pound against the euro, swapping grey skies and rain for the Mediterranean sun.

According to many travel experts, it seems that the government’s attempt to persuade the nation to take a “staycation” during the London Olympics has fallen flat on its face, as an estimated 30 per cent of the country plans to flee the UK. It’s not hard to see why. The price of hotel accommodation in the capital promises to be prohibitive and London taxi groups have issued stark warnings about traffic flow. A spokesperson for the Licensed Taxi Drivers Association states that “London is going to be chaos city” with closed roads and awful traffic. In fact a survey has revealed that an estimated 40 per cent of cabbies are planning to leave London during the event and Addison Lee, London’s largest minicab company, described the Olympics as “damaging” to business.

Even friends with homes in London are taking their annual summer holidays during the main Olympic period of 27 July-12 August, specifically to miss London 2012. They believe that the volume of cars on the road and inflated prices across the city are good reasons for leaving the country and many are taking advantage of excellent holiday package deals. Holiday offer website Travelzoo suggested that discounts as high as 65 percent were on the table particularly for vacations in Spain and Greece while Amadeus, the travel technology provider, suggests that one in five Britons would be heading abroad. Online travel agents have reported 200 per cent increases in bookings with the Balearics topping the list.

Some private London clubs that had hoped to attract lucrative Olympic business during what is normally a slack period, have found contracts cancelled while others have failed to pick up offers. Now there is a mad scramble to offer last minute accommodation deals to those who haven’t already made their plans.

The desperate plea to Britons of “Don’t fly. Support team GB” issued by Olympics partner, British Airways, appears to have fallen on deaf ears. Still, every grey cloud has a silver lining. If Britons vote with their feet, just think how wonderfully traffic-free London will be for all the incoming Olympic teams and tourists. Let’s just hope they don’t forget their brollies.

Source; http://my.telegraph.co.uk/expat/annanic ... -sunshine/

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Kind regards,

Brummie Cabbie.

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