Greece remains on top for summer 2005

Greece was the top selling package holiday destination for summer 2005, because of a lack of no-frills flights to the  country, according to lastminute.com.

In a market report on travel trends, the online retailer said Greece had remained at number one from  last year because it was not as accessible to independent travellers as rivals such as Spain.

“Athens is well served by the airlines and easyJet’s flights to the city have opened the market for budget-conscious independent travellers. But by far the easiest way of getting to the likes of Corfu, Kos, Crete or Rhodes is still on a charter flight, which means packages  still rule this market,” said holidays and flights director John Bevan.

Package holidays to countries outside the Euro zone were also popular this summer, with Egypt the second biggest seller and Turkey the fourth, behind Spain in third  place.

“Even as recently as a few years ago, these destinations were seen as the choice of more adventurous travellers, not as a mainstream beach destination for couples, families and groups of all ages,” said Bevan.

“The switch towards these new destinations has been heralded for a few years by industry pundits but it’s not been until this year that the real change has come.”

Bevan said that Austria and Malta were both in the top 10 package holiday destinations and claimed this was a reflection of older age groups booking online with lastminute.com.

As in 2004, the top destinations for people putting together their own holidays were France and Spain  respectively.

The average lead time for people buying packages is 34 days and for those putting together their own packages is 45 days.

In summer 2005, Paris was the top city destination, overtaking last year’s favourite, Barcelona. Meanwhile, New York, Johannesburg and Bangkok were all in the top 10 flight-only destinations.

“Confidence is clearly growing in terms of booking high-value long haul travel online,” said Bevan. “We expect this trend will  continue in the next few years. Until now the short haul city break destinations  have been dominant, but it seems that this could be changing.”

Marrakech, the venue for the ABTA Convention in November, was lastminute.com’s fastest growing city break destination, recording a 410% increase in bookings for summer 2005, compared with the same period last  year.

Dubai is set to be the most popular winter sun destination, followed by Las Vegas and Egypt. Last winter the Maldives topped the poll, followed by the Dominican Republic, with Dubai in third place.

Abu Dhabi is expected to grow in popularity  on the back of Dubai’s success, while China, India, Australia and New  Zealand are all expected to see an increase in bookings this winter.

In the ski market, Canada is expected to leap frog America as the most popular long haul destination.

For summer 2006, Kenya, Mexico, Barbados, South Africa and India are all tipped to be popular with lastminute.com bookers.

*Log on to the www.Travelmole.com website for further stories from the lastminute.com market report.