Brits turn their backs on European city holidays in favour of sun on their faces this winter

• Holidaymakers are looking for mid- and long-haul holidays including to Cape Verde, Barbados, Dubai, Egypt, Maldives and the Canaries to a much greater extent compared with winter 2019/20

• City break interest declines vs. pre-pandemic

• Time to take the plunge? Average price of an overseas city break from the UK falls across the board

15.11.2021 - UK holiday makers are increasingly looking at mid- and long- haul travel destinations, rather than cities for their winter holidays compared with before the pandemic. The proportion of searches by holidaymakers for overseas city break destinations has declined this winter compared with departures Nov 2019 to end of Mar 20. Conversely, there has been an increase in interest from Brits in winter sun holiday destinations further afield. That is according to price searches for winter package holidays made in the last month (6 Oct to 7 Nov) vs the same period in 2019 via the holiday comparison and deals sites, TravelSupermarket and icelolly.com

BRITS ARE LURED BY THE LIKELIHOOD OF SUN IN MID TO LONG-HAUL TRAVEL DESTINATIONS

TravelSupermarket:

• Cape Verde has jumped in popularity to 2nd most searched for winter holidays from 9th in 2019/20
• Dubai 4th from 8th
• Barbados 8th from 27th
• the Maldives 10th from 18th  
• Fuerteventura 13th from 24th

icelolly.com:

• Egypt is fifth most searched for holidays this winter from 8th for winter 2019/20
• Barbados 16th from 34th
• Dubai 8th from 16th
• Madeira 19th from 50th
• Malta 13th from 24th
• Cape Verde 14th from 19th
• Tenerife (most popular destination to search for winter in both 2019 and 2021) has increased its share of holiday interest by +49% and Lanzarote (2nd most popular search this winter) by +43%
• Antalya (and resorts around it such as Belek, Alanya etc.) has jumped to 7th from 11th
• Gran Canaria to 9th from 13th

BRITS ARE SEARCHING TO A LESSER DEGREE FOR CITY BREAKS THIS WINTER FOR HOLIDAYS

TravelSupermarket:

• Amsterdam has gone down in the winter package holiday price comparison search rankings from 4th to 16th
• Krakow has fallen from 5th to 7th
• Prague from 11th to 23rd
• Rome from 17th to 20th
• Budapest from 22nd to 37th

However, one city is still attracting interest from Brits via TravelSupermarket and another city is bucking the overall downward trend in city holiday search; New York is the third most searched (albeit falling one place from 2nd in 2019) and 5th most booked for this winter. Paris has gone from 34th to 18th so is in a similar ranking position across TravelSupermarket and icelolly.com (17th).

icelolly.com:

• Amsterdam was 4th in winter 2019/20 and is now 10th
• Krakow 13th, now 27th
• Marrakech 17th, now 23rd
• Prague 20th, now 33rd

WINTER CITY BREAK PRICE FALLS

As a result of a fall in demand, the average price of a three-night overseas city break from the UK, departing before the end of the year, is down across the board. TravelSupermarket pricing data, from across the holiday outbound market, shows that, for example, the package holiday price from the UK to Krakow, the most popular short-haul city break search via the site this winter, is down by nearly a quarter and to Budapest by a fifth vs the same search (6 Oct to 11 Nov) and departure (1 Nov to 31 Dec) period in 2019.

Emma Coulthurst, a travel commentator for the websites says that lower demand is seeing lower prices; “Cities like Krakow, Prague and Budapest rely on British tourism; the UK is one of their biggest source markets. If Brits are not travelling, the airlines and hotels are having to reduce already good-value prices to try and stimulate people to book. If you’re prepared to go, you can find package deals from under £150pp or even for less than £100pp at the moment to these and other fascinating cities to visit including Vilnius, Riga, Bucharest and Warsaw. There are also really good package prices to the likes of pre-pandemic popular destinations such as Barcelona and Berlin and even Rome”.

BRITS CHOOSING SUN AFTER FORGOING HOLIDAYS ABROAD FOR A LONG TIME

Emma says the reduced opportunity to holiday overseas in the last two years is probably affecting people’s choices; “This time last year, the UK was facing limited opportunity to travel. People were finding that they had booked but were having to cancel holidays as the country went into another lockdown and only essential travel was allowed. Now, restrictions have relaxed for travel back to the UK with only one lateral flow test required within two days of landing. People are dipping their toes back in the holiday waters with a sun holiday rather than a city break as many have not taken a holiday abroad this year or last year. City breaks tend to be an additional holiday. So, sun on their faces and a swim in warm seas is what people seem to be craving the most.

“People may also be choosing sunny beach and Island holidays as they think they will be able to socially distance more easily. Perhaps people are not as comfortable with visiting cities compared with winter 2019 as they associate them with crowds. Hotter destinations also enable more outdoor eating and living”.

“Finally, length of trip may be a factor. As there is still some form filling to do, some entry requirements for some countries and a test to book for your return and it’s a long time for some since they have been in an airport, they are deciding to go away for longer than just a few days”.

Chris Webber, Head of Holidays for the websites says there is a desire to get away for a break before the end of the year; “We’ve seen the amount of holiday interest significantly increase across both our sites since reductions in travel rules were announced in late September and restrictions started to ease from early October. September and October have been the strongest months of the year so far for people comparing holidays via our websites and clicking out and booking with providers. Nearly half of all searches in the last week have been for departures this month or in December. Many people have annual leave still to use up after many months of 2021 when they were unable to take holidays abroad”

Chris adds; “The Canary Islands are proving particularly popular and are by far the most searched for and booked by Brits for a winter holiday. After the Canaries, Cape Verde is the second-most booked via TravelSupermarket. On iceolly.com, we are also seeing interest and bookings increase for Egypt. Now travel has opened up to the U.S. we also are seeing more interest across both sites in the last week for holidays to there”.

Emma adds; “The travel market is still in recovery with many people out of the habit of going abroad. With the market still not near pre-pandemic levels, those who do book and go away can benefit from some really good winter prices. In terms of good value and good sun options at this time of year, the Canaries, Cyprus, Madeira, Cape Verde, Egypt, Florida, Cancun and the Dominican Republic are just some of the destinations worth looking at and comparing package holiday prices to.

Resorts around the Spanish southern Costas, the Algarve and Antalya in Turkey also offer fantastic value, albeit less guaranteed sun although you can still expect it to be a good deal warmer than in the UK.  If you want to explore and eat delicious, good-value food, then these destinations will deliver in buckets and are still incredibly popular through the winter, especially as you can pick up a holiday there from around £200 or less per person for a week”.

TravelSupermarket most searched destinations for holidays this winter (In brackets are the positions for the destination  for the same search (6 Oct to 7 Nov) and departure period (1 Nov to 31 Mar) in 2019/20:

1. Tenerife (1)
2. Cape Verde (9)
3. New York (2)
4. Dubai (8)
5. Costa del Sol (12)
6. Lanzarote (7)
7. Krakow (5)
8. Barbados (27)
9. Gran Canaria (13)
10. Maldives (18)
11. Cancun and the Caribbean Coast (19)
12. Costa Blanca including Benidorm (10)
13. Cyprus (36)
14. Algarve (3)
15. Fuerteventura (24)
16. Amsterdam (4)
17. Antalya and resorts in region (16)
18. Paris (31)
19. Reykjavik (20)
20. Rome (17)

Icelolly.com most searched for in the last month for a holiday this winter (and in brackets, the 2019 winter share of search positions):

1. Tenerife (1)
2. Lanzarote (2)
3. Gran Canaria (5)
4. Costa Blanca (3)
5. Egypt (12)
6. Fuerteventura (7)
7. Antalya (11)
8. Dubai (16)
9. Algarve (6)
10. Amsterdam (4)
11. Cancun (10)
12. Costa del Sol (14)
13. Malta (24)
14. Cape Verde (19)
15. Majorca (8)
16. Barbados (34)
17. Paris (15)
18. Madeira (50)
19. Rome (22)
20. Dominican Republic (31)

Package holiday price examples (correct as of 15.11.21)