This Morning's resident travel expert Simon Calder has sparked anger from the ITV show's viewers after telling people go book a holiday for this summer, saying it was "perfectly rational" to do so.
The expert appeared on the morning TV show with hosts Eamonn Holmes and Ruth Langsford to to speak about the UK tourism sector's Save Our Summer campaign.
The new scheme has well in excess of 100 UK travel companies pushing for holidays abroad to be allowed by the UK Government from May 1, just as Matt Hancock revealed officials were considering vaccine passports for travellers.
The ITV show's resident travel expert has been a regular guest on the show during the pandemic as guidance has continued to change, sometimes with little warning.
Simon said on Tuesday's This Morning : "As you know, the government 'we're on the road to nowhere' as the Talking Heads sang in 1985.
"But Save Our Summer, which is a consortium of all sorts of big businesses, including Trailfinders and EasyJet holidays...they say 'we want to be the Boys of Summer' - Don Henley 1984 - and therefore we are demanding restrictions - or at least some of them - are relaxed by the start of May, which is when the main summer holiday charter season starts."
"The idea is, let us travel for goodness sake. Also, don't tell people not to book holidays because it's perfectly rational to book holidays.
"I would urge people who are worried about booking a holiday to go ahead, talk to somebody [ travel agent ] and get it sorted."
Reacting to the travel expert's interview, one viewer fumed: "what a absolute prat. crass and insensitive," and another tweeted : "Why is Simon Calder on #thismorning telling people to go and book their holidays without any worries.
"He said the same last year and the virus spread and people couldn’t get a refund either. This 'expert' shouldn’t be given any airtime."
Another said: "You would have to be an absolute clown to book a holiday right now. #thismorning."
