Europe's summer abroad cancelled as staycation bookings soar

Up until late January Terry O'Toole was fielding a trickle of enquiries from Irish holidaymakers happy to settle for another summer at home in one of the cottages he manages in the scenic west coast region of Connemara.

But when a government minister said on radio that it was very unlikely Irish people will be able to go on foreign holidays this summer, "the trickle became a torrent."

From Connemara cottages to Berlin houseboats, Sweden's ski slopes to UK activity parks, holiday accommodation is being snapped up by cautious domestic tourists already resigned to another staycation summer, amid fears of foreign travel bans and quarantines.

Availability is very tight, said O'Toole, the managing director of Love Connemara Cottages.

"Like last year... you have the entire Irish market trying to squeeze into only a set amount of bookings."
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