New Year Travel Trends From ThomasCook.com

4 January 2013

Tenerife

Searches on www.thomascook.com on New Year’s Day were up a third to compared to January 1 2012, bringing the total to 4.5 million since Christmas Day.

With the January blues about to besiege the nation, the Canary Islands are benefitting most from Brits escaping for some winter sun with one in every two people jetting away in the next few weeks choosing to visit Tenerife, Gran Canaria, Lanzarote or Fuerteventura.

Such is the demand for a holiday in 2013, that research from Thomas Cook also shows New Year’s Resolutions and sacrificing costly habits will be a key way for people to save money for their 2013 break abroad, with some taking more drastic measures such as taking a second job or overtime to save up to £200.00 a month more to ensure the holiday is in the bag.

Summer Sun: The Canary Islands are far and away the most popular destination at this early juncture in the 2013 booking season, with searches up 17 per cent. Tenerife is the most popular of the three islands, but searches for Lanzarote are up 13 per cent on last year.

Turkey remains a stalwart summer destination for 2013 owed to the range of resorts and types of holidays available, from city breaks in Istanbul to gulet cruising the Lycian coast and the fantastic family facilities at its wide range of hotels.

The Greek Islands are also showing signs of resurgence with Lefkas, Lesbos and Skiathos all up more than 30 per cent on 2012 and the fabulous Santorini and its whitewashed building juxtaposed against the bright blue seas, up by half so far.

Winter Lates and Year-Round Sunshine: In addition to the Canaries, Egypt and Tunisia are topping out the winter sun tables with searches up 45 per cent for Egypt and 40 per cent for Tunisia.

Tropical Shores: Long haul hotspots so far look set to be Florida, Cuba, The Gambia and Mexico – up 84 per cent, 54 per cent, 27 per cent and 27 per cent respectively.

Winter Wonderlands: Lapland has been really popular since the start of the 2012/13 season, and searches continue to be more than double the rate at this time last year (146 per cent up). On the slopes, Austria and Bulgaria are peaking with searches for both destinations up 54 per cent.

European Culture: Lake Garda and The Neapolitan Riviera are up more than 43 per cent putting Italy firmly at the top of the culture charts for 2013 so far, with Rome, Venice and Florence proving to be huge draws for another year, too.

The emerging trends and destinations based on searches on www.thomascook.com are:

Top 5 destinations for Summer

Turkey, Greece, Balearic Islands, Canary Islands and Tunisia.

Top 5 destinations for this Winter

Canary Islands, Tunisia, Egypt, Turkey, Cuba.

For more information, visit www.thomascook.com

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