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Travellers switching away from eurozone destinations
People are heading for more unusual destinations to escape the effects of a faltering pound against the euro.
Traditional family holiday favourites such as Greece and Spain are proving less popular than non-eurozone destinations such as Egypt and Tunisia.
The shift in holiday trends has been identified by flight comparison website Cheapflights.co.uk.
The company checked the current search traffic for several popular non-euro destinations compared to the same time last year and found that Egypt’s Red Sea resort of Sharm El Sheikh has shown a 50% increase in searches for flights.
While overall enquiries leapt up in April, favourites like Alicante in Spain showed a three per cent reduction in searches and Corfu in Greece dropping in position by 16%.
Tunisia saw a double digit rise in popularity search traffic, rising year-on-year by 47%.
General manager Francesca Ecsery said: “We noticed a change over the past month compared with March, where bookings were lower than the same time last year.
“We think many British families have been holding on to see if the pound picked itself back up against the European currency.
“But now they are not prepared to wait any longer, opting to holiday outside the Eurozone where they can get far better value for their money.
“Even allowing for the additional attraction of the Egyptian pound’s very slight weakness versus sterling a year ago, the 50% increase in interest shows that value for money is a key consideration for UK consumers.â€
She added: “Two countries which switched to the Euro on 31st January this year also saw increases in search traffic compared to last year with Malta showing a 35% increase and old favourite Cyprus still managing a 10% increase.
“It will be interesting to see how the switch to the euro will affect their popularity over the next six months or so.”
by Phil Davies
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