Cruising: a bruising impact on UK tourism

Simon Calder’s Travel Week [View in browser]( [The Independent]( [Travel] Simon Calder’s Travel Week [Simon Calder]( Written by Simon Calder | April 02, 2021 Hello, and thank you for signing up to The Independent’s weekly travel newsletter. Wednesday 31 March 2021 was a day to celebrate at Cunard. The cruise line, which has been unable to carry passengers for the past year, earned more money than it has on any day for a decade. Prospective passengers were desperate to pay upwards of £500 for four nights on a voyage from Southampton to Southampton, via the English Channel. Ocean wave: a boat trip to see the cruise ships moored off the coast of Dorset The UK created the world’s greatest travel industry (pre-pandemic, at least) by creating products that people value. And crew in the cruise industry have suffered as much as anyone from the global shutdown – even suffering the ignominy of becoming the subject of boat tours from various south coast ports as they lay at lonely anchor. So why would I have a problem with the grande dame of cruising enjoying the biggest spike in bookings for 10 years? Leaving aside the sense of swapping one form of lockdown for another, aboard a ship you can’t leave, my concern is the damage it could cause to land-based tourism – and, in particular, cities. Some of the voyages from Southampton this year will be to look at Scotland. Certainly the nation’s coast is exquisite. But the country deserves closer inspection – and the revenue that comes with it. The V&A in Dundee, which opened beside the Tay to such high hopes in 2018, lost four out of five of its visitors last year. Glasgow’s marvellous People’s Palace and Kelvingrove Museum were both down to one-seventh of normal numbers. At Edinburgh Castle, the leading paid tourism attraction outside London, seven out of eight stayed away. Slumps on that scale jeopardise the tourism fabric of the UK. The V&A in Dundee on opening day, 2018 Any bright spots? Yes: sunshine on Leith Hall – which, despite the name, is in Aberdeenshire rather than on the edge of Edinburgh. The gardens of the National Trust of Scotland country house kept all but seven per cent of its visitors, which I believe is the best performance in the UK. If you happen to be one of the people who boosted the fortunes of Cunard, I recommend you do yourself – and the UK’s benighted tourism businesses – a favour and follow the voyage with a close-up. Destination of the week: Pontcysyllte Aqueduct It would be churlish not to commend a location in the only one of the four UK nations where actual holidays are permissible this week: Wales. (If you live in England, you will be able to visit from 12 April; from Scotland or Northern Ireland, there is no certainty yet.) The Llangollen Canal is something of a cul-de-sac among Britain’s inland waterways. But its conception was the spur for Thomas Telford's Pontcysyllte Aqueduct: an exquisite structure of cast iron and stone that carries the canal across the Dee valley. It was recognised as a Unesco World Heritage Site in 2009 – a testament to engineering that has supported commerce and (latterly) sightseers for two centuries. Walk across the narrow towpath, then wander down into the valley to appreciate its slender might. Deals of the week - Malta has become the latest nation to throw its hat into the "jaunts for jabs" ring. From 1 June, the island nation says vaccinees will be eligible for hassle-free admission. Early adopters who believe the UK government will relax restrictions can fly out on 2 June for a week with Wizz Air from London Gatwick for a ludicrously low £25 return. - Compared with that, any rail fare in the UK is in danger of looking expensive. But the Avanti West Coast express between London Euston and Liverpool Lime Street is looking appealing for late May, with £23.60 one-way Advance tickets in abundance. I've checked this against fares between the capital and Manchester Piccadilly, and the Merseyside city looks a solid 30 per cent cheaper on comparable dates/times. Question of the week: a train trip to Malaga? Question: Is there any “one stop shop” where you can book a train ticket from Eastbourne to Malaga? Answer: Once upon a time, I fancy, one could have walked into the Thomas Cook branch in Eastbourne and walked out with a ticket taking you across the Channel from nearby Newhaven to Dieppe, onwards to Paris and Madrid, with a final leg through the rugged Spanish interior to the coast. Today, the same task can be achieved even more briskly online, through the Rail Europe website. But I have problems with the proposed itinerary. It assigns you a 10-hour wait on the Franco-Spanish border at Port Bou, from 10am to past 8pm. And the price is a sky-high £263 one way – about eight times the price of an off-peak easyJet flight from Gatwick to Malaga. Experience suggests that Rail Europe is good for some chunks of a complex journey, but other legs are best bought individually. It shouldn’t be like that, but since it is I recommend you consult the excellent Seat61.com website and act on its advice as you construct a great rail adventure from East Sussex to southern Spain. 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