Sunshine-seeking British travelers are said to be racing to book last-minute summer offerings to escape wet weather at home and cut costs by opting for all-inclusive packages and more affordable deals, according to a report on Saturday.
Among the top destinations where a notable increase in the number of flights is expected throughout the month stands out Türkiye, alongside Morocco and Greece, according to the Financial Times (FT) report.
Loveholidays, the U.K.’s largest online travel agent, said 64% of current bookings had been made for trips starting in the next 90 days, up from 59% last year.
Chief executive Donat Retif said Britain’s “miserable” weather was a main factor behind the rise in late reservations, with 4.9 million people set to go abroad with the company in 2024, up from 3 million last year.
“I think people just need to see some sun,” he said, noting that while Spain, Greece and Türkiye remained top destinations, Albania, Romania and Tunisia were increasingly popular with customers who could “stay for longer without compromising on hotel quality.”
Moreover, in a sign of customers wanting “more control over their holiday spending,” he said that all-inclusive deals have been the most popular product this summer, accounting for 41% of bookings versus 36% in 2019.
The report also cited MSC Cruises, the biggest European operator whose packages include meals and shows, as saying last week that bookings made in July for trips in August and September had surged by 30% from last year.
Echoing the view of Loveholidays, Antonio Paradiso, U.K. and Ireland managing director, said “weeks of dismal weather and the conclusion of the U.K. election and Euros” meant it was “not surprising that Britons are only now deciding it’s time for a holiday.”
Earlier Turkish media reports also indicated that tourism representatives and hoteliers in top locations within the country, such as the Mediterranean resort city of Antalya, anticipated a rebound in arrivals following the Euro 2024 championship, which dented travel.
According to FT, Retif also said that three days after England lost to Spain in the final of the European Championship football tournament on July 14, U.K. bookings were up 10% from the same period the week before.
The surge in last-minute bookings comes as Britain experiences a cooler-than-average summer. The Met Office has said temperatures were “persistently below average across the U.K.” in the first part of July.
One in five U.K. adults would book a holiday “purely to escape from poor weather,” according to a survey published by the travel association Abta this week.
Furthermore, the report also said that despite price pressures easing and U.K. inflation holding steady in June, households hit by the rise in living costs tend to opt "to secure value-for-money deals," according to Celine Fenech, consumer insight lead at Deloitte.
Research conducted in June by the advisory firm showed consumer sentiment in “holidays, hotel stays and leisure travel” recorded the biggest quarterly increase of all measured leisure activities, which included “attending live sports events” and “eating out.”
But it was the only category with a notable decline in spending intention in the next three months, pointing to weaker demand for holidays in off-peak periods, said Fenech.
Almost 10,000 flights to Morocco, Türkiye and Greece are scheduled to leave U.K. airports this July, an increase of 52% from July 2019, according to aviation analytics provider Cirium.
The 13,000 flights due to take off for the Netherlands, France and Italy this month represented only 87% of pre-pandemic levels, according to the data provider.
The European Travel Commission, which promotes tourism around the continent, said Britons remained “strongly focused on lower-cost destinations” compared with European peers. It noted that, up to June, Türkiye and Serbia had some of the biggest growth in U.K. arrivals compared with 2019.
