Holidaymakers are looking for more luxurious holidays, according to the latest Hayes & Jarvis Long Haul Trend Report which showed five-star hotels were the best sellers in the first nine months of the year.
The operator said the increase in demand for five-star holidays has been driven largely by better value deals available in the Dominican Republic, Mauritius and Mexico.
At the same time, customers are booking later as they are hanging on for last-minute deals.
Destinations most popular in the lates market include Vietnam, with last-minute booking up 140% year on year, South Africa (up 76%) and Mauritius (up 24%).
Head of commercial Sean Dowd said: "It’s clear that our customers are continuously looking for great value when booking.
"The Dominican Republic appears to be ticking all of the boxes this year in terms of price, service and quality.
"In the last month alone we have seen bookings to the destination up a staggering 119 per cent, which shows the real potential it has."
Following the trend earlier in the year, New York, Thailand and Las Vegas are still sitting as the top three destinations for Hayes & Jarvis.
However the fastest growing destination by far has been Vietnam – which has ballooned 87%, said the operator.
"Vietnam is that ‘next step’ for travellers looking to explore Asia, perhaps after visiting Thailand," said Dowd.
" The access to the country has opened up over the past year or so with direct flights from Gatwick to Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City with Vietnam Airlines, encouraging its popularity."
Multi centre bookings now account for more than a quarter of Hayes& Jarvis’ business, with Africa beach and safari combos up 112% and India tours rising 271%.
Hawaii is also seeing growth as a multi centre destination, with customers choosing a US city stopover.
"We have seen 10% growth in our tailormade bookings since the beginning of the year with multi centre trips accounting for more than 25% of our business," added Dowd.
While the Maldives has remained steady this year, Mauritius has been a star performer with a 15% increase in sales.
Bookings for Egypt’s most popular resort Sharm el Sheikh are 1% up, but sales to Kenya have dipped following last month’s terrorist attack in Nairobi. However, Hayes & Jarvis said bookings for summer 2014 were "encouraging".
It said bookings for Boston had also slowed since the Marathon bombings, but this had not had an impact on the US overall.
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|
Sales since Jan 1 2013 to date |
Fastest growing since Jan 1 2013 |
|
Ranking |
Destination |
Destination |
|
1 |
New York |
Vietnam |
|
2 |
Thailand |
South Africa |
|
3 |
Las Vegas |
Kenya |
|
4 |
Maldives |
Louisiana |
|
5 |
Mauritius |
Tanzania |
|
6 |
Mexico |
Tenessee |
|
7 |
Dubai |
Mauritius |
|
8 |
California |
New York |
|
9 |
Kenya |
Sri Lanka |
|
10 |
St Lucia |
Las Vegas |
