When overseas holidays will resume for lockdown Britons remains no more than “speculation and hope”.
But it appears unlikely that overseas travel restrictions will be lifted in time to enable normal summer packages to go ahead even with a predicted gradual relaxation of UK lockdown measures within weeks.
October and November have emerged as the most popular future departure months, according to April search data complied by holiday price comparison site TravelSupermarket.
Twelve of the top 20 most popular price searches until the end of the year are to long-haul destinations, with 13 of the top 20 to island locations.
Perennial package holiday favourite Benidorm tops the list ahead of the Maldives, Las Vegas, Tenerife, Orlando, New York, Cancun, Dominican Republic, Dubai, Majorca, Jamaica, Cape Verde, Mauritius, Antigua, other Canary Islands, Amsterdam, Barbados, Fuerteventura, Ibiza and Lanzarote.
Most popular destinations for holiday price searches by departure months:
September 2020
Tenerife, Las Vegas, Benidorm, Phuket, Orlando
October 2020
Las Vegas, The Maldives, Majorca, Tenerife, Corfu
November 2020
Benidorm, Fuerteventura, New York, the Dominican Republic, Jamaica
December 2020
New York, Tenerife, Maldives, Cancun, Jamaica
TravelSupermarket travel commentator Emma Coulthurst said: “There will be brighter days ahead. However, when travel and holidays might resume for Brits is currently based on speculation and hope.
“When the time comes, there won’t be synchronicity. The lifting of travel restrictions for tourism will vary from country to country, with actions currently being discussed by governments on how to ensure both local citizens and holidaymakers are kept safe.
“In the UK, a ‘restart and recovery’ group of civil servants and aviation industry leaders has been set up to determine appropriate measures.”
She added: “We don’t know if people are just browsing, rather than thinking about booking.
“But it seems that even though UK travellers don’t yet know when they will be able to get away next, they don’t want to give up dreaming.
“Some of people’s time during lockdown is being used to compare prices for exotic beach escapes or trips to some of the world’s most entertainment-filled cities and October and November have become the most popular departure months to search.
“There is one clear anomaly though – the most-searched-for destination for holiday prices for the rest of 2020 is Benidorm. With the pubs closed at home and talk of potential cheap beer prices on the Spanish coast in future, Brits appear nostalgic for a drink or three in the sun by the sea.”
But there is no knowing what will happen to holiday prices in future.
“Some of the package holiday prices offered by operators for autumn and early winter seem to be aimed at trying to re-stimulate the market,” Coulthurst said.
“In future, there could be a more limited supply of holidays and flights or there could be a restriction imposed on aircraft load factors. That may push up prices. But it is too early to say.”
Package holiday prices currently include October seven-night, all-inclusive breaks from the UK to Turkey from under £360 per person, two-night European city trips in November from under £100pp, six-night holidays to Dubai from less than £500pp in October and seven night breaks to New York from around £550pp in November.
Five-star, seven-night, all-inclusive breaks to the Caribbean in December are presently available from under £1,000pp.