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‘Poor UK weather sparks foreign holiday boom’
A forecast of ‘dismal’ British weather this summer has triggered a surge in overseas holiday bookings, Thomas Cook claims.
The company saw a 20% year-on-year rise in late bookings in the last two weeks in April and the first week of May. It has also seen an increase of almost 10% in overseas bookings for the peak month of August over last year when soaring UK temperatures encouraged people to stay at home.
Thomas Cook believes the surge was due to torrential rain across most of the UK this spring.
The most popular long haul destinations are Mexico, Cuba, the Dominican Republic and Florida, with a 60% rise in children booked on Caribbean holidays this summer – up to 14,000.
Greece and all regions of Spain, including the Balearics and Canary Islands are maintaining their popularity, particularly with families with young children.
Meanwhile, non-Euro countries like Egypt, Tunisia, Turkey, Bulgaria, Croatia and Morocco are seen as offering good value this year.
Thomas Cook quotes forecaster Andrew Bond, of independent weather firm Metcheck.com, as saying: “It’s fair to say that the superb weather and high temperatures that we had in the UK last year were execptional and I’m afraid 2004 looks like being a pretty average British summer. Although there’s a chance of mini-heatwave during mid to late May, we’re not expecting the sustained and frequent periods of good weather that we had in June, July and August last year.”
Thomas Cook managing director of sales Steve Finlan said: “Holiday bookings have risen fast since late April as people have become fed up with the current unsettled weather and heard about the disappointing summer that forecasters are predicting for the UK.”
Report by Phil Davies
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