Half of all adults in Briton are unaware that the spring bank holiday has been postponed to tie in with the Queen's Golden Jubilee celebrations, raising concerns that people may have made plans for the wrong weekend.
A survey carried out by market research company Taylor Nelson Sofres, showed that, despite publicity for the Golden Jubilee, 50 per cent of us did not know that the Whitsun bank holiday, which normally falls on the last weekend in May, will now be combined with the Queen's Jubilee Holiday to give an extended public holiday on Monday 3 and Tuesday 4 June.
Seven per cent of those who weren't aware of the date change said they had already made plans for the last weekend in May.
West Country cottage specialist Classic Cottages said it had had several cancellations from people who reserved the last weekend in May only to discover that most local authorities have moved the school half term back one week to the first week of June.
Despite the confusion, the travel industry is predicting a bumper weekend in June, as people take advantage of the four-day weekend.
Classic Cottages booking office manager Mary Harlow said 92 per cent of cottages were already booked for that week, compared with 58 per cent for the same time last year. Hoseasons was similarly upbeat, claiming that 96 per cent of its UK boating holidays were sold out for that week and most of its cottages sleeping more than eight people had been snapped up.
The London Tourist Board anticipates that thousands will flock to the capital to join in the official jubilee celebrations along the Mall and around Buckingham Palace. Charles Anson of the Golden Jubilee Weekend Trust, the charitable foundation organising many of the major events, admitted that there was some confusion over the changed public holidays: 'People need a steady drip-feed of information and plenty of gentle reminders to lodge it in their minds that the dates have changed,' he said. However, he was confident that the event would capture people's imaginations. 'If the weather is fine, we can expect very large numbers. A Golden Jubilee doesn't happen very often.'
This may be so, but the low-cost airlines predict that record numbers will be taking advantage of the long weekend to flee to warmer climes. An estimated 3 million people will leave the country that weekend.
A spokeswoman for EasyJet said popular 'sunshine routes' such as Palma, Malaga, Barcelona and Nice were filling up fast and predicted it would be busier than Easter. Buzz has seen a similar surge in bookings for routes to Spain and south-west France, with new route Bergerac proving particularly popular.
City break specialist Kirker Holidays said hotel allocations for hotspots such as Venice, Rome, Andalucia and the Amalfi coast were filling up fast and people leaving bookings until after Easter could be disappointed. 'I don't think people have fully grasped what a honeypot that weekend is going to be. You have a half-term week coinciding with a double bank holiday, so everyone is going to want to travel,' said sales director Ted Wake.
However, Travelscene's Nick Bamford said he suspected people's decisions about whether to travel that weekend were just as likely to be affected by the fact that England is playing Sweden in the opening round of the World Cup on the Sunday. 'You'll find that plenty of people will choose to stay in front of the telly with a beer,' he said.
