The Middle East conflict has had an effect on tourism in Cumbria with at least one operator reporting a cancellation.
Windemere Lake Cruises say a party were due to travel via the Middle East and have opted to cancel.
The company is confident though that direct flights avoiding the area will mean other groups will still be able to visit.
“We’ve had our first cancellation just a couple of days ago which was a Filipino group booking who cancelled because they were flying in via the Middle East,” sales and marketing director Jennifer Cormack said.
“China is our biggest inbound market by far and at the moment, we’ve got direct flights from Beijing and Shanghai directly into Manchester.
“A huge amount of other flights fly directly into London and Edinburgh so they’re not having to go via any of the Middle East hubs. We do probably think we’ll see a few more Southeast Asian, maybe Australian cancellations because they were using Dubai or Doha as a hub.”
Around 20% of all visitors to the cruise company are from abroad. Last year 1.2 million people enjoyed Windermere by boat.
Our sister site Business Crack has been behind the scenes as Windermere Lake Cruises gets ready for the main season.
Read more and hear the latest edition of our Northern Lights podcast which was recorded at Bowness later this week.
