Pushing the boat out: spending bigger for holidays of a lifetime

 PlainSailing.com Press Release 

Issued 16th March 2021

We’re all sat in our homes and watching the vaccine rolling out and Covid figures slowly getting under control - and dreaming of what the summer will bring. We’ll hopefully continue to watch the numbers moving in the right direction, and then, within the next few weeks, we’ll hear official announcements regarding what the summer will look like.

The UK Government are set to announce their plans for international travel on 12th April 2021 (at the moment it is banned until mid-May), but people are starting to look at the evidence themselves and concluding that borders will re-open, and international travel will be possible soon: sailing holidays are getting booked again, and confidence has returned to the market.

Interestingly, they’re not just booking any old sailing holiday. One trend that global charter experts PlainSailing.com have noticed is that, on average, people are spending a fair amount more on their holidays – and either upgrading to a bigger, better and newer boat, or pushing the boat out and booking the multi-week sailing charters they’ve always wanted.

They’ve also noticed a huge increase in interest in the more glamourous ‘once in a lifetime’ sailing destinations: searches for Caribbean destinations are up a massive 400% on pre-pandemic levels, and there’s also more interest in chartering from their French base in Saint Tropez. Luxury is back in fashion.

Part of this surge is that people have had time to formulate grand plans, and that they tend to have extra money in their pocket from not being able to spend it so easily during lockdown – but there are also a few clients who have bumped up their budget because they’re only planning on travelling abroad one time this year: so instead of planning multiple jaunts to the sunshine, they’re planning to travel just once, but to do it in style.

 PlainSailing.com comment 

Tommy Tognarelli, co-founder of PlainSailing.com, said “It’s nice to be back helping people to find their dream yacht or catamaran to charter, somewhere sunny, and interest has picked up substantially as we start to hear about how international travel will work this summer.

“People have spent the last year pretty much doing nothing – particularly here in the UK, where we’ve been severely locked down for the best part of a year now – and now that we’re talking about life after lockdown, they’re pushing the boat out and booking something super-special to get them through the last few weeks or months of this.

“Many of them have been defacto saving money because everything they could spend their money on has been closed, plus they’ve had a lot more time to dream about going on their holidays – which means that we’re seeing bigger and bolder holiday plans: people are realising that life is short, and that they need to make the most of it when they can: pay extra for a fancier boat; book something big enough to get the whole family on board; go sailing in the places you’ve always wanted to sail.

“People are yearning to get away, and after a pretty miserable year, it’s easy to justify that people deserve a break – and not just any break! When holidays are allowed again, people are planning to make the most of it!”