Sun and beach destinations are leading demand for holidays from the UK with Easter recovery stronger than February half-term, new data reveals.
Flight bookings to and from the UK have soared following the government’s announcement that Covid-19 testing would no longer be required for fully vaccinated travellers entering the UK.
The five destinations which saw the strongest recovery in January were: Mexico, 72% up on 2019; The Maldives, 54% up; Greece, 22% up; Cyprus, 20% up; and Barbados, 16% up, according to research by flight analytics firm ForwardKeys.
The destinations which are doing best for the upcoming half-term break are now all ahead of where they were at the end of January 2019.
In the lead is Mexico, 68% ahead; followed by Pakistan 60%; The Maldives, 55%; Barbados, 32%; Qatar, 28%; Bangladesh, 16%; UAE, 8% and Portugal, 2%.
“The list is dominated by long haul destinations, which offer beach holidays or have a relatively strong market for Visiting Friends and Relatives (VFR), such as Pakistan,” ForwardKeys said.
Bookings for Easter and summer holidays are relatively stronger than they are for February half-term.
Benchmarked against the end of January 2019, half term bookings are 33% behind, whereas Easter bookings are 29% behind and summer is 16% behind.
Compared to this time last year, when the UK was in a state of limited lockdown, bookings are much healthier – 59% ahead for Easter and 82% ahead for summer.
The top destinations for Easter are led by Cyprus, with bookings 68% ahead of 2019 levels.
The island is followed by Nigeria, 35% ahead, Mexico, 28%; Greece, 26%; and Spain 5%.
The typical seasonality patterns have returned and are evident in the recent recovery, with peaks showing for the forthcoming half-term break in February and Easter, when looking at flight tickets confirmed in January.
In relative terms, demand to travel abroad during the extended holiday weekend to celebrate Queen Elizabeth’s Platinum Jubilee in early June, is already 13% ahead of 2019.
The recent surge in outbound bookings has been closely followed by a modest revival in inbound demand.
As of January,31, the strongest origin markets, measured by flight tickets issued, were led by Nigeria at 73% of pre-pandemic (2019) levels.
The African nation was followed by Ireland, 47%; US, 47%; Brazil, 47%; Saudi Arabia, 45%; UAE, 44%; South Africa, 40%; Spain, 40%; Kuwait, 37% and Sweden, 36%.
ForwardKeys insights vice president Olivier Ponti said: “By withdrawing the impediment of testing and the risk of quarantine for fully vaccinated travellers, flight bookings are surging ahead.
“What I find particularly interesting is the continued dominance of classic sea and sun destinations.
“A clear sign that the pandemic is still very much with us is the absence of a revival in city tourism or travel to airports strongly associated with skiing.
“However, if we see continental European countries relaxing their travel restrictions in the way the UK has just done, I expect to see a flood of holiday bookings that could exceed pre-pandemic levels, thanks to a release of the huge pent-up demand.”
Meanwhile, Eurostar chief commercial officer Francois Le Doze said: “With travel restrictions between the UK and France lifting, we are seeing a surge in leisure traffic both in the short term and looking further ahead to spring and early summer.
“We have as many passengers booked to travel in February half term as we had across the whole of January which shows the potential for recovery and the appetite for travel between the UK and the continent.
“We will continue to add trains across our core routes and look forward to returning to our pre-pandemic frequency of service in the coming months.”