Citalia, Sovereign Luxury Travel & American Holidays highlight repeat booking trends for Summer 2024 Lates and Winter Sun

Wednesday, Aug 21, 2024 0

Citalia, Sovereign Luxury Travel & American Holidays, the three leading tour operator brands within the Travelopia Tailormade stable, have detailed a marked increase in repeat booking trends for both Summer Lates and Winter Sun booking periods. A trend which could support agent trade partners during the current busy peak booking season, to work with existing clients to either drive new sales or extend current bookings for the months ahead.

Some of the key repeat booking trends identified include:

Summer 2024

Across Citalia, Sovereign Luxury Travel and American Holidays for summer 2024, repeat bookings are up as much as 40%.

Looking more specifically by brand and destination, Citalia has seen a marked increase in demand in Italy for The Lakes YOY. Alongside the Lakes, Sicily is also proving popular for summer 2024 driven by demand for Taormina and Cefalu.
For Sovereign Luxury Travel, across the portfolio there is a shift towards extended shorter breaks as guests opt for more a luxurious experience for a shorter period rather than the longer seven, ten and 14-night stays and Spain is leading the way in terms of bookings and enquiries. Its accessibility from the UK makes shorter breaks possible and popular.
Across the Atlantic for American Holidays for summer 2024 a cross-section of destinations are proving popular. The Deep South, New England and West Coast make up nearly a quarter of repeater summer bookings, with New England in particular seeing a 50% increase YoY.

Winter Sun 2024-2025

The volume of repeat bookers has increased share of winter sun bookings by a quarter, from 50% in 2023-2024 to currently 75% in 2024-2025.

Within Sovereign Luxury Travel, nearly half (42%) of all winter sun bookings are from repeat bookings. The most popular destination is Tenerife, making up a quarter of all repeat bookings. Over half (54%) of repeat winter bookings are for departures in February and the average length of trip for a repeat booking is 9.75 nights, demonstrating guests are prepared to invest in guaranteed sunshine away from the colder months at home
For Citalia a quarter of all winter sun bookings are from repeat bookings, with the Italian cities proving the most popular across Venice, followed by Rome and Florence. Over half (54%) of repeat winter bookings are for departures in November, however the average length of stay is shorter compared to Sovereign Luxury Travel: 5.3 nights which is perhaps to be expected given the cities are the more popular destinations, more suited to long weekend breaks.
Across North America American Holidays has reported a fifth of all winter sun bookings are from repeat bookings. Across the winter months, Florida is the most popular destination for November departures, followed by New York, cruise holidays and rest of the USA for December. A fifth of repeat winter bookings are for departures in December, with the average trip duration of a repeat booking being 11.6 nights.

Erin Johnson, Marketing Director for Citalia, Sovereign and American Holidays, comments:

“Reassuringly there is still a strong commitment to holiday spend. However, guests are keen to ensure they are taking valuable time out to destinations and with agents and operators they know and trust. This is good news for us as tour operators and for agents, as well as across the wider supply chain, as it means there is already a captive market to engage with who know and appreciate a particular destination or hotel and are keen to revisit. Looking further ahead to 2025, beyond the winter months we are also already seeing a significant proportion of bookings as repeat for those guests keen to plan ahead as well as secure holidays for the winter sun season.”