Capello's failure could be worth over £10m for travel sector

Travel companies are preparing to receive an unexpected windfall if the England team fails to make the next round of the World Cup on Wednesday.

According to The Co-operative Travel, England’s last World Cup exit (on penalties to Portugal in 2006) led to holiday bookings reaching their highest levels of the year. If England exits this tournament early, experts are predicting over 15,000 extra bookings worth approximately £10.4 million.

Trevor Davis, Director of Retail Distribution at The Co-operative Travel, said, “While England remain in the tournament we traditionally see lower than usual booking numbers. However, looking at data from previous World Cups, it’s clear that as soon as the team is knocked out we see booking numbers bounce back almost instantly.

“If England fails to match their previous performances of reaching the quarter-final stages in major tournaments, then we expect to see bookings rise much earlier giving us a considerable boost to sales.

“We believe that for the travel industry as a whole this could be worth over £1 million in bookings for each day. This is more than £10 million extra in sales if the team fails to progress on Wednesday rather than lasting until the quarter-finals.”