January Sees Holiday Booking Bonanza
Credit card provider Visa Europe predicted this week that yesterday will turn out to have been the busiest day of the year when it comes to UK holidaymakers booking their cheap flights to Europe and beyond.
The company told the Daily Mail newspaper that 11 January 2010 saw more than 87,000 flights being booked. This could indicate that this month will experience something of a "holiday booking bonanza".
Of all the bookings logged by Visa Europe, city breaks and cheap holidays in the sun remained the most popular, as they did in January last year. Cheap flights to Malaga, Amsterdam, Alicante, Geneva, Faro and Paris were among the favourite destinations.
Visa Europe's head of debit, Tony Gibbons, said that the "outstanding deals" being offered by cheap flights carriers and the desire of customers to chase away the "back-to-work blues" by looking forward to a weekend away would boost the phenomenon.
"City breaks, Valentine's weekends or just some good old-fashioned sunshine are exactly what people feel like at this time of year and we expect beach destinations such as Spain as well as European city breaks to feature strongly in the most popular destinations," he added. "Many consumers are looking to 'get away from it all', especially if they are able to do so at a bargain price."
However, many UK holidaymakers are also looking further afield for their holidays. Cheap flights to the Middle East and Africa are also growing in popularity, Mr Gibbons said.
Travel operator Round the World Experts' head of marketing Paul Bondsfield told the Mail: "We experienced our busiest ever day for round the world flight bookings this Saturday and are expecting this to be our biggest week of the year."
Travel Industry News posted by 
on 12 January 2011
