The Far East, the Middle East and Australia are all selling well currently while all-inclusives and value-driven packages are predicted to drive sales next year.
Gold Medal product and commercial director David Robinson said city breaks in Istanbul were also proving popular although he agreed lead-in times are shortening while hotels are preparing an increasing amount of offers.
He added: “Hotels are very reactive at the moment.
“They’re quite concerned and they’ll do everything they possibly can within a realistic cost base to get the customers through their doors.”
He also urged travel agents not to become too concerned if there are not queues of customers outside their shops come New Year’s Day.
Robinson said: “It is in the second and third week that it (business) starts to rock and roll and that’ll be no different this year.
“I think the market’s a bit later than it used to be, the window of purchase is much smaller. People are now booking to go next week and in the past while the availability wasn’t there, now it is.”
Head of travel industry sales Lee Marshall said regional departures are proving popular with flights out of Scotland seeing 25% growth this year. He also believes the package holiday is due for a renaissance next year.
He said: “The biggest growth that we’ve seen is on the package sales and I think this is because of the reassurance a package holiday provides. I don’t think dynamic packaging has cracked up to be all it was geared up to be.”
Head of marketing Dave Raywood agreed, adding: “People spend an awful lot of time and effort on price-comparison shopping.
“The consumer has never been offered so much choice and so many deals, it becomes ever more difficult to make a decision and the travel agent is finding a role in the decision-making process as they can offer advice.”