The Advantage Travel Partnership reports that its agents expect sales for the Easter break to “significantly” outperform 2019 as consumers continue to defy the cost-of-living squeeze.
Julia Lo Bue-Said, Advantage chief executive, said: “The UK is gearing up for a busy Easter break for travel. Across our travel agent partners we are seeing Easter weekend bookings up 6% [compared to Easter 2019] and are expecting Easter bookings this year to significantly outperform 2019.”
The top five destinations that the consortium’s members have been selling are Lanzarote, Alicante, Majorca, Crete and Orlando.
“There is undeniably a huge appetite for travel this year and the inclusion of the US in this suggests that people are continuing to prioritise travel despite the cost-of-living crisis,” she added.
“For those who are concerned about costs and are still wanting to travel this Easter, we recommend booking with a travel agent who can find you the best value deals for their budget.”
Lo Bue-Said added that airports are expecting large numbers over the four-day weekend, with Stansted forecasting 175,000 people will departing from the airport over the bank holiday period.
Manchester airport is expecting to see 300,000 passengers and will operate more than 1,900 flights over the four-day period.
“For anyone travelling over this period worried about strikes, we do expect that the majority of travellers will not experience delays as a result of contingency measures that are normally put in place to minimise disruption,” she commented.
“However, we recommend travellers leaving plenty of time to get to the airport and keep up to date on your flight time and any potential delays by checking the airline or departure schedule online.”
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