The awful May Bank Holiday weather and driving rainstorm which met commuters on their way back to the office on the Tuesday, following a long weekend, has led to a hefty increase in orders for holidays abroad. Many UK residents it seems are trying to dodge the random weather of the UK and go somewhere hot and sunny. Over the course of the bank holiday and particularly around Tuesday lunch time, online travel websites like, First Choice, lastminute.com and Thomson experienced incredible rises in online holiday bookings, some even by 22%.
The climate of the UK is a strong issue in pushing British holiday makers abroad in record numbers again this year, bookings alone for winter breaks have dramatically increased and demand for short city breaks is ever growing. With the circumstance of global financial insecurity in the UK at the moment, short city breaks are becoming fashionable with people not geared up to fork out for full price holidays. The average cost for a week’s holiday has recently been put at around two thousand pounds, according to a recent survey of around three thousand travellers abroad.
The small, city breaks, costing less, are rising in popularity, a recent survey by an online travel website, reported that over eighteen percent of holiday makers are choosing to go on these short city breaks, as opposed to only 23 per cent taking a fortnights holiday or more.
A fundamental reason for the growth in city breaks and enticement of far away sunny destinations is due to the pound’s current standing against the Euro. The pound is weak against the Euro, indeed at the moment, a Euro costs 80p. This has led to traditional destination haunts like Cyprus, Greece and Spain take a down turn in bookings with holiday makers looking at cheaper alternatives in countries such as Romania, Morocco and Bulgaria where the pound is stronger.
One of these countries, Romania, have certainly noticed an influx of tourism to their towns over the last couple of years. Last year alone the tourism market made 34 million Euros more than in the previous year. Although, many Britons choose to holiday now in eastern European countries, the infrastructure and facilities does not have enough appeal to make foreign tourists spend lots of money and so aid their economy. Even still, the forecasts for this year is that the amount of tourists should increase by around 13-15%.
19% of holiday makers surveyed were also looking to visit destinations were the pound is strong. This means that America, with its weak dollar is particularly attractive with cities such as Orlando and LA touted as potential break destinations.
All in all the future doubt surrounding the strength of the UK currency against other currencies as well as rising utility, fuel and mortgage payments, will certainly mean that holidays abroad to traditional destinations like Spain and Greece, occur less frequently and holidays to eastern European cities like Bulgaria increase, from our need to get the most from our money in today’s tough financial environment.
Amy is a freelance commentator who writes occasional articles on UK Travel, such as Butlins Holidays on behalf of eComparison.
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