00:00Well, let's bring in travel broadcaster and commentator, Simon Calder.
00:04Simon, thanks for joining us. It looks like you're in a beautiful location as well.
00:08So what is your outlook for TUI? Do you think they can make up these disappointing numbers?
00:14Yes, and talking to Sebastian Abel, the chief executive, earlier today,
00:19I got the sense that they believe that they are in a very strong position,
00:23not least actually because of crews.
00:26You mentioned the fact that they'd lost quite significantly.
00:30That was due to having a couple of ships trapped behind the blockade of the Strait of Hormuz.
00:37But since then, he says that it's been extraordinary how much demand there is for cruising.
00:44The company is building new ships as fast as the shipyards can get them.
00:49He said they're all sailing full and that basically the company is in a fairly strong position.
00:57But it's just another example of just how vulnerable the travel industry is to geopolitics.
01:04Of course, all kinds of businesses, particularly airlines and indeed hotels in the Gulf region,
01:11are suffering very badly as a result of the conflict in the Middle East.
01:14So they're trying to offset these risks, of course, but it's not just the conflict.
01:19There's extreme weather, there's wildfires.
01:23The jet fuel prices, of course, have rocketed.
01:25How do you think these travel giants can navigate as they look ahead?
01:31Are they looking at new destinations?
01:33Well, that's a really interesting question.
01:35And there isn't actually a huge amount of movement so far towards perhaps cooler destinations.
01:43But I think that these things are all cumulative.
01:46And if Europe gets used to extremely hot summers just becoming regular events to the point where your Mediterranean beach
01:55vacation simply doesn't feel like a proper break,
01:59or indeed you're worried about the wildfires that seem to be heading over the hills,
02:03then people, I think, will choose perhaps destinations on the Baltic Sea because, of course, that is going to be
02:11very significantly cooler with much lower risk of wildfires.
02:16And so I think that change will all happen in time.
02:19But on the other hand, you will still find people who can think of nothing better than in the height
02:24of summer being somewhere like Dubai or southern Egypt,
02:28where the temperatures are regularly going to be well over 40 Celsius.
02:33Well, Simon, you have voted with your feet.
02:36I understand you're in Spain, of course, for the solar eclipse.
02:39Is that proving to be a boost for local businesses?
02:43Absolutely huge.
02:44The Spanish authorities estimate that an extra half million people are travelling to Spain in order to view the eclipse.
02:53Now, some of those will be on the island of Mallorca, where the eclipse will reach kind of last on
02:58its trajectory.
02:59And in a sense, they would be there anyway.
03:01But I'm speaking to you from just west of Burgos in northern Spain, where there are about 300 eclipse chasers.
03:10We have all spent thousands of dollars to be here because it's a fantastic sight.
03:17I'm just looking up with my eclipse glasses at the sun.
03:20There's no sign of the partial eclipse yet, but within an hour or so, we will start seeing the sun
03:27disappear.
03:27And we're beneath the line of the path of totality, pretty much on the centre line.
03:33So we're hoping for a maximum duration of about one minute and 45 seconds, which is a very expensive amount
03:41of time.
03:42But evidently, everyone here thinks it's a good investment.
03:45Well, thank you for that safety demonstration, Simon.
03:48I was going to ask you if you had your glasses.
03:50What's the atmosphere like where you are?
03:52Everybody is hugely excited, partly because we have got completely clear skies here.
03:59And funny enough, of course, they study weather records before they choose a site for a proper kind of scientific
04:05expedition like this.
04:07And on this very day, a year ago, anywhere in mainland Spain was entirely within clouds.
04:13But they've all disappeared.
04:14And there's an awful lot of people who are here for their first eclipse.
04:18They say, well, it'll be the first and only one.
04:20But actually, there's going to be an even better eclipse on the 2nd of August next year.
04:25So if you're in a part of the world which doesn't have an eclipse at all or it's just partial
04:30where you are,
04:31then start planning for southern Spain, North Africa on the 2nd of August, 2027.
04:39That is going to have about the longest duration of any eclipse this century.
04:44And you can be absolutely sure the travel industry will be making a fortune from it.
04:50A date for our diary.
04:50Simon Calder, thank you so much.
04:52Juliet, back to you.
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