The trade has hailed an encouraging and earlier-than-usual start to peak sales.
Agents and operators said they were already enjoying healthy levels of enquiries and bookings, with particularly robust trading between Christmas and New Year fuelling optimism for January and February.
Jet2holidays and sister airline Jet2.com went live with their ‘big sale’ on Christmas Eve, leading to an earlier bookings rush on December 24, a “bumper” Christmas Day and “strong” Boxing Day.
Chief executive Steve Heapy forecast the momentum would “continue into the New Year” as the company prepared for a sales surge this weekend as customers looked to escape the cold weather. The first Saturday of January, dubbed ‘Sunshine Saturday’, is typically one of the most popular days of the year to book a holiday.
The prediction came as agents attributed early supplier campaigns by the major operators for buoyant trading.
“We promoted Jet2’s campaign and if the last week is anything to go by, I’m very hopeful,” said Idle Travel director Tony Mann, adding: “I’d now class peaks as starting between Christmas and New Year’s Eve. Sales on the days we were open would be a decent day in January. It’s encouraging and the current cold weather should help us even more.”
Althams Travel reported December as 25% up on the previous year. Managing director Sandra McCallister said: “The period between Christmas and New Year was particularly good as we were up between 12% and 31% every day.”
Spear Travels said daily sales between December 27 and 31 were nearly double targets, while the month overall was up 32%. “Trading has been strong with some really good bookings,” said head of retail operations Natalie Turner.
An InteleTravel survey showed 70% of its agent respondents received enquiries between Boxing Day and New Year’s Eve, 65% of which were new. Sales were up 33% overall year on year, with packages up 64% and cruise sales up 58%.
UK managing director Tricia Handley-Hughes credited Jet2’s sale for sparking interest in the family market and InteleTravel’s own ‘strategic’ investment for driving cruise sales. “We can expect a strong start to 2025,” she predicted.
Not Just Travel reported a fourfold increase in Boxing Day bookings compared to 2023, with a third of all bookings made for summer 2025.
Fred Olsen Travel reported an 8% year on year rise in bookings over Christmas despite its branches opening three and a half days compared with four last year.
Retail director Paul Hardwick said enquiry levels were “decent” and a mix of summer sun, cruise and touring. “I wasn’t really expecting huge levels of sales until January 2 onwards on the high street, but so far footfall has been positive,” he said.
Inspire Europe chief executive Lisa Henning cited “impressive” sales on the first Saturday post-Christmas. “We’re exceeding last year’s Christmas performance,” she said.
Independent Travel Experts managing director Gary Gillespie reported a slowdown in the week up to Christmas, as expected, followed by a “strong rebound”. Sales post-Christmas were 72% up on December 20 to 23, while December 30 was an “exceptionally strong” day.
“Overall, we ended the month significantly ahead of December 2023,” said Gillespie.
Families accounted for 24% of bookings, with Spain the most popular destination, followed by Turkey and Greece. Cruise and long-haul destinations also ranked highly.
The Advantage Travel Partnership chief commercial officer Kelly Cookes it was a case of “so far, so good” with sales up 9% year on year on Boxing Day despite a rise in holiday costs and revenue up up 16%.
“We know pricing is higher and we can see this in the growth of the average selling price, which is up 7%, although some of this will be down to people trading up,” said Cookes.
The Canaries was Advantage’s top seller but Greece and Turkey had a strong start while the Caribbean and Thailand topped the long-haul list.
The Travel Network Group commercial director Katharina Peck stressed that many members had shut their shops during the Christmas week, but she said half of members’ bookings during the festive period were late sales for this winter, particularly for the Canaries, while summer 2025 took a 40% share of bookings. The most popular departure month was August, with Turkey the top-selling destination.
The Travel Shop director Simon Oram was optimistic after just two full days’ trading since Christmas. “Although we’ve not got much confirmed yet, things are looking very positive for 2025,” he said.
The healthy trading reports came as a poll of 2,000 consumers conducted for audit, tax and consulting firm RSM UK’s latest Consumer Outlook found increased demand for holidays of five days or more and for weekend breaks for 2025.
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