Holiday bookings for the just concluded half-term breaks for most UK schools (the break took place Oct. 24-28) were stable, according to results of the Travelzoo® Autumn 2016 Travel Trends Survey.
Said Richard Singer, president, Europe, for Travelzoo, “Speaking to the many travel companies Travelzoo works with, we know October half-term bookings have been fairly stable. However there is definitely concern in the market about Christmas and February half term, where we expect to see the true impact of Brexit and other global events.”
Familiar holiday hotspots such as Spain and France continue to be the favored destinations in spite of the weakened pound, the reported noted, with Spain continuing to be the top overseas destination this half term–with the Canaries in particular performing strongly with the British outbound leisure traveler. Other key trends from the survey show the growing popularity of long-haul holidays, with Canada and Australia named joint second along with France as the most popular destinations.
“However,” said Singer, “there is definitely concern in the market about Christmas and February half term, where we expect to see the true impact of Brexit and other global events. Highlighted results of the survey follow.
Singer was less positive about the outlook beyond the immediate future, saying, “As we approach the last few months of 2016, we can see that there are many factors impacting the desire to travel to what, just two years ago, were some of the top autumn and winter destinations. The situation right now could be described as a perfect storm. We have increased pressure on the price of European holidays, caused by the falling value of the pound, combined with two of the key affordable destinations (Sharm el Sheikh and Tunisia) continuing to be off the menu for British holidaymakers. Looking outside Europe, destinations popular with Britons continue to suffer from the impact of Zika virus.”
