With chaos in airports, delays in passport delivery and the soaring cost of hotels and car hire at home and abroad, it is a wonder anyone is planning to travel at all as the first summer since the world started to re-open in the post-Pandemic period dawns.
But despite all the challenges travel is very much on the minds of many people.
The first headaches many have encountered have been at Dublin Airport. The daa, the authority which runs Dublin Airport, is clearly struggling to deal with the post-Covid world. Huge delays toward the end of March have been repeated in recent days with people missing flights as being forced to stand in queues for hours as they try to get through security.
Then there is the high cost of car hire – at home and abroad. A combination of a shortage of cars and a spike in demand has seen prices go through the roof all over the world with two weeks car hire in normally cheap destinations such as Span and Portugal more than doubling in recent weeks.
Hotels and restaurants oversea are also looking for higher prices and while the aviation industry has rebounded faster than many might have thought even three months ago, seats will be at a premium in the weeks ahead and prices will increase.
The picture even closer to home is, if anything worse.
Hotel prices have climbed by more than 20 per cent when compared to the same period in 2019 while availability in areas where people might like to have a staycation once again is in very short supply.
Food prices have climbed. Energy prices have climbed.
But despite all the gloom summer holidays are still something many people will look forward to.
Fionn Davenport is a travel writer and he talks to In The News about some of the challenges that will face would-be holiday makers in the weeks and months ahead and, perhaps, some of the things they might have to look forward to.
