MADRID – Opening a travel agency in the midst of a global pandemic may seem like a brave move. Sunny Heart Travel, the new online travel agency, will start selling travel for summer 2021 from March 1st.
Born from the ashes of British tour operator Thomas Cook, which went bankrupt just before the covid pandemic, Sunny Heart Travel will sell travel direct to consumers. Ten of Sunny Heart Travel’s fifteen employees previously worked for Thomas Cook. The online travel agency is based, as Thomas Cook was, in Peterborough.
Currently, they offer package holidays for European and Mediterranean destinations such as Spain, Egypt, Turkey and Tunisia. Later, long journeys to Australia, the Caribbean, Mexico and Thailand will join the holiday options. Cruises and winter vacations are available for the 2021/2022 winter season.
Second lockdown delayed launch
Steve Bentzen, CEO, explained that Sunny Heart Travel initially planned to be on the market in September, but the second wave of corona threw a spanner in the works. According to Bentzen, companies in the tourism sector are enthusiastic about the new British tour operator because of pent-up demand from travellers. Bentzen says: “Who knows what will happen, but we know that if we don’t dip our toe in the water once, we never will.”
©Sunny Heart Travel
As soon as the travel restrictions are lifted, he expects to be able to catch up. Employees say they are ‘very optimistic’ about future success, according to Thisismoney.co.uk.
It is still the case that anyone arriving in the UK from abroad is to quarantine for 10 days. People coming from ‘red list’ countries have to pay £1,750 to stay in an official quarantine hotel.
