The traditional ‘peak’ booking periods are shifting, according to the latest insights from The Personal Travel Consultants in Partnership with Blue Bay Travel (PTCs).  The homeworking business is seeing customers increasingly booking in the post-payday windows, creating short, sharp surges in demand that are replacing traditional peaks. This new behaviour highlights a more value-driven consumer, potentially driven by the rising cost of living. Summer 2025 is seeing strong demand across both Europe and long-haul destinations, but with changing booking patterns, the PTCs say agents need to be more responsive than ever to changing demands. Looking further ahead, The Personal Travel Consultants has seen an increase in long-haul bookings for Summer 2026 with destinations like the Maldives, Mexico, Mauritius and Thailand gaining popularity. Abbie Heaton, Group Manager for the Personal Travel Consultants in partnership with Blue Bay Travel, said: "We're seeing a clear preference for value with a focus on European destinations this summer, with Turkey, Greece, and Egypt topping the list.” Looking ahead to summer 2026, high-end long-haul markets are showing growth, particularly among families, multi-gen enquiries and couples seeking luxury experiences." Data indicates that customers are delaying their booking decisions, with quote-to-booking conversion taking longer than usual. Trading remains more unpredictable than normal, with ‘peaks’ no longer experiencing such a clearly defined trading window. Current trends show fewer late bookings, with more customers planning high-value holidays, averaging £8,000 per booking, 2–3 seasons in advance. However, this is contradicted by the core Blue Bay business as it continues to perform well with late bookings.

Blue Bay Travel is seeing a record-breaking end to the year. The tour operator just recently celebrated its best trading week ever. November sales figures soared 200% year-on-year for the Stoke-on-Trent-based firm, despite the seasonal downturn at this time of year. This tops an already successful year for Blue Bay Travel, which previously reported its best trading week in the summer. It attributes the recent uplift to improvements in the operation over the last year as well enhanced product. CEO, Alistair Rowland said: “Registering our all-time best trading week is an incredible result for our team.” “November is, generally, a less prolific booking period but we’ve used this year to better understand our audience, including their shifting holiday requirements.” “The diversification of our core portfolio, as well as our delivery via highly targeted campaigns has proven to be a winning combination."

Blue Bay Travel has just experienced its best week in the company’s 20-year history. The Stoke-on-Trent-based tour operator recorded June booking levels normally reserved for the January Peaks period. It comes just two weeks after Blue Bay reported their best June trading day on record. This was quickly exceeded by 112% on the 28 June 2023, which made it the best day for sales ever. Online bookings were also up 63% on the previous best. Blue Bay owes the strong mid-year performance to multiple technical changes aimed at making the online booking process smoother. June also saw Blue Bay achieve 6,000 TrustPilot customer ratings with the current score at 4.9 “Excellent”. CEO Alistair Rowland said: “A record-June trading month, including our best days on record, is an incredible – albeit surprising- achievement.” “We have worked hard across all areas of the business to enhance the journey for the customer.”

Tour operator Blue Bay Travel hailed record travel booking sales for January 2023. It was its busiest month on record for online holiday sales. Mauritius, St. Lucia, Tobago and Greece were the most in demand destinations. About 97% of January bookings were for departures within the next 12 months. Overall bookings in January surpassed January 2022 by 11% It said 5 January 2023 was the busiest single day of travel booking sales in the company’s 20 year history. Blue Bay Travel’s data shows that customers are eager to travel sooner rather than later. Almost 30% were for getaways departing in the current winter season while over half were for summer. Alistair Rowland, Blue Bay Travel CEO, said: “January is traditionally a busy month and our January 2022 trading was strong.”

Travel agent and tour operator Blue Bay Travel, has strengthened its tech development team with the appointment of Matt Wood as Lead Developer.  The hire will see Wood drive the development of Blue Bay Travel’s systems and technology as the company continues to grow its direct-to-consumer business. Wood rejoined Blue Bay on 30 May 2022, having previously worked for the business as a Web Developer, from July 2019 to February 2021. Reporting to Software Development Manager, Alex Bowers, Wood is responsible for training a team of six developers, creating development projects, and ensuring the projects are delivered on time. Wood began his career in marketing in South Africa, where he grew up, but moved into development 10 years ago. Before rejoining Blue Bay Wood spent 16 months working for online learning solutions provider, Growth Engineering Ltd. Wood said: “I’m impressed to see how the team has grown and acquired new skills during the time I was away - despite the challenges that Covid brought. I hope to be able to make a swift impact on the team and its goals.” Alistair Rowland, Chief Executive for Blue Bay Travel, said: “We have doubled our development department in the last year and are really proud of the work that the team does to create a seamless experience for our direct customers and trade partners.”