Bookings up sharply on overseas holidays
Wednesday, August 5, 2009 @ 4:59 PM
Monarch Flights and Holidays are reporting a rise of 32 per cent in overseas bookings since school holidays began, as compared with last year at the same time. The travel group has said that Spain’s Costa Blanca is the most popular destination abroad this summer, with sales up by 216 per cent, year-on-year. Much of the increase in bookings is attributed to the gloomy UK weather, which is not warm and sunny as the Met Office had earlier promised.
In addition to the Costa Blanca, the group has seen a major rise in bookings to other warm and sunny destinations, including Crete, with an increase of 188 per cent; Sharm el Sheikh, up by 143 per cent; Kenya, seeing a rise of 133 per cent; and Fuerteventura, up by 112 per cent. The travel company has noted a strong demand for scheduled flights as well, with 260,000 Britons departing on overseas flights at the start of the school holidays, and airlines seeing a 1.39 per cent rise in load factors for July – as compared with the same month last year.
Among the most popular flight-only holiday destinations are Malaga, on the Costa del Sol in Spain, Faro in Portugal’s Algarve and Alicante, on Spain’s Costa Blanca. The managing director of Monarch Flights and Holidays, Liz Savage, said: “We are seeing strong demand for both flights and holidays this summer, which has been assisted by the dismal weather in the UK and the bleak August forecast sending fed up Brits looking for warmer climes.”
Source: www.wcjb.co.uk