Bookings for summer 2011 holidays in January were 6% up on a year ago despite downturns to two leading destinations of recent years.
Latest figures from leisure travel analyst GfK Ascent also show a 10% increase in revenue in the month year on year, wirh a 4% rise in average selling price close to the official rate of inflation.
Summer bookings for Egypt were down in January, as would be expected, but only by 15% and the country began the year at 5% below last year’s booking rate. Tunisia was also down.
However, thousands of UK holidaymakers continued to book the. Red Sea resorts.
GfK Ascent managing director Sarah Smalley said: “It is very positive that the troubles in the Middle East have not decimated the holiday market.”
January bookings to Turkey were also down. The big winners were the Spanish islands, Cyprus and Italy with traditional destinations in Europe seeing 200,000 more bookings in the month than a year ago.
Season-to-date bookings for summer are up by less, however, reflecting the distorting impact of heavy snow on sales in January 2010.