A record 2.3 million people are set to leave the country over the Christmas and the New Year period for winter sun or snow holidays. The estimate came from ABTA which said Egypt, Tunisia, Morocco, Turkey and Dubai were competing with traditional favourite destinations such as the Canary Islands, Florida and the Caribbean. Southern Spain has also sold well particularly with travel from regional airports, according to the association. Favourite ski destinations this year continue to be France, Austria, and Italy in addition to the US fuelled by the weak dollar. ABTA has also seen continued growth to Bulgarian ski resorts and Andorra for families and those on a budget. Top destinations to spend New Year are Paris, Amsterdam, Prague, Dublin and New York. December 23 is expected to be the peak travel day over the festive period but Christmas Eve will also prove to be very busy. BAA estimates that 1.5 million will fly from the UK through its seven airports, which include Heathrow, Gatwick, Stansted, Southampton and the main Scottish airports, while 50,000 will travel from Luton, 200,00 from Manchester and around 125,000 from Birmingham. Nottingham East Midlands reports a large increase in traffic on last year with at least 70,000 passengers leaving the country. An additional 200,000 are expected to travel under or over the English Channel to France, Holland and Spain with more than 100,000 travelling on Eurostar which has laid on six extra trains to cope with demand. ABTA president Martin Wellings said: "Christmas at home can be a magical time of year but record numbers of us now recognise that combining it with a holiday provides the ultimate icing on the cake" Report by Phil Davies

Categories:  Breaking News, Travel Agent News, Hotel News, Tour Operator, Airline News, Destination

USER COMMENTS

Heather Hopkins 21 December 2005, 13:13:34 GMT Long-haul destinations receive more searches - but fewer bookings? I compared the ABTA data to Hitwise Search Data and found a few interesting differences. In particular, Hitwise data shows more searches for long-haul destinations than the ABTA data shows based on bookings. My guess is the reason for this is that consumers do more research before booking long-haul flights. The comparison data in posted on my blog at weblogs.hitwise.com, if you're interested in further detail.