Greece and Turkey Popular with Late Booking Consumers
A report from TravelMole has said that Greece and Turkey are leading the way when it comes to late summer holiday sales, which is not surprising. According to online firm youtravel.com, more then a fifth of the bookings are scheduled for travel within four weeks.
Over the past six weeks, the volume of late bookings has increased by over 20 per cent. The first half of June saw overall bookings increase by 15 per cent.
Portugal and Tunisia are also becoming popular destinations for late bookings, seeing double-digit growth in May. The Costa del Sol in Spain has also seen a sales boost of 14 per cent.
It’s Greece and Turkey though that are reaping the most benefits. In Greece, both Rhodes and Crete are up 27 per cent while Turkish resorts Bodrum and Dalaman are respectively seeing an 11 per cent and 21 per cent booking increase.
Sales and marketing director Paul Riches said: “Greece and Spain have been stalwarts of the British travel industry for decades, it’s going to take more than currency fluctuations to put the Brits off travelling to these destinations. They’re entrenched in our holiday psyche, are familiar and are easy to access. On top of this there are some great value all-inclusive resorts in Spain and Greece meaning that the strength of the euro can be largely mitigated.”
Mr Riches said that September and October should see similar results in the increase of late bookings: “Historically, the shoulder seasons are hard to sell whilst the peak July and August weeks are booked heavily in advance. This is not the case this year.”
“… there is no doubt that booking levels will continue to grow in the next few weeks, even before the peak season hits us.”
Holidays and Flights News posted by Don on 25 June 2009
