Speaking to TTG at the Hays Independence Group conference in Vilamoura, Hays Travel managing director John Hays said recent terror attacks, including the Paris shootings, the Sharm el Sheikh aircraft bombing and the Tunisian beach attacks, have all left consumers wary of certain destinations.

Citing figures showing that nationally, summer 2016 bookings are 42% up for Portugal, 34% up for the Canaries, 25% up for the Balearics and 21% up for Cyprus, he is confident that more traditional destinations will have a strong year.

However, he warned such an increased demand will mean prices are most likely to go up for them during the late selling period, when hoteliers are no longer contracted into the programmes that are sold off early and during peaks.

Hays said: “Those places are benefiting but it is disruptive to the industry generally. If you’re a hotelier in Spain and your demand is up 30%, your prices will follow that.”

However, he believes it is still too early to know what will happen, adding: “The situation is so unclear and it is so fluid given the level of disruption we’ve got.”

There certainly hasn’t been the capacity growth to support these increases in demand, so the industry needs to start telling consumers to book early or pay the price