United Kingdom
United States
Asia Pacific
Are you ready for your busiest day?
Get set, ready, go – for today is tipped will be the busiest day of the year for holiday bookings.
According to Visa Europe, over 87,000 flights are expected to be snapped up by British holidaymakers today, based on data from previous years.
Visa Europe says the number of UK cardholders booking flights peaks at this time every year with the Monday and Tuesday of the second week of January consistently the busiest days of the year.
On the same Tuesday (12 January) in 2010, over 83,000 bookings were made using Visa cards, whilst in 2009 nearly 70,000 were made on the corresponding day (Tuesday 13 January).
Visa Europe is predicting an even bigger rush this year, as airlines cut prices and the cold weather continues.
Last January, the most popular flight destinations booked were European destinations, and Visa Europe expects Brits to look to similar destinations again this January for quick getaways (see list below).
The top booking destinations and the number of flights booked in Jan 2010 were:
Malaga 50,884
Amsterdam 44,409
Alicante 40,894
Geneva 35,728
Faro 30,511
Paris 22,633
Mallorca 19,458
Barcelona 18,910
Krakow 17,031
Madrid 16,549
Visa Europe head of debit Tony Gibbons said: “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.
“As well as these popular choices, our data shows that an increasing number of British tourists are venturing further afield and we expect to see places such as the Middle East and Africa doing particularly well in 2011.â€
By Bev Fearis
Bev
Editor in chief Bev Fearis has been a travel journalist for 25 years. She started her career at Travel Weekly, where she became deputy news editor, before joining Business Traveller as deputy editor and launching the magazine’s website. She has also written travel features, news and expert comment for the Guardian, Observer, Times, Telegraph, Boundless and other consumer titles and was named one of the top 50 UK travel journalists by the Press Gazette.
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