Record Numbers Of Britons Travel Overseas To Find Value For Money by Maria Tillinghous

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Record Numbers Of Britons Travel Overseas To Find Value For Money
by Maria Tillinghous

The dreadful May Public Holiday weather and heavy rainstorm which met workers on their way back to the office on the Tuesday, following an extended weekend, has led to a big increase in bookings for holidays overseas. Many people it seems are trying to dodge the erratic weather of the UK and go somewhere with a sunnier clime. Over the course of the bank holiday and particularly around Tuesday lunch time, online travel companies like, First Choice, lastminute.com and Thomson experienced incredible rises in online holiday bookings, some even by twenty percent .

The climate of the UK is a strong factor in pushing British holiday makers abroad in record numbers again this year, bookings alone for winter breaks have dramatically increased and demand for short city breaks is ever growing. With the circumstance of global financial diffidence in the UK at the moment, short city breaks are becoming popular with people not geared up to shell out for full price holidays. The average cost for a week’s holiday has recently been put at around two thousand pounds, according to a recent survey of around four thousand travellers abroad.

The quick, city breaks, costing less are rising in popularity, fuelled by costs of a fortnight abroad compared to shorter breaks, a recent survey by an online travel website, reported that over 18% of holiday makers are choosing for these short city breaks as opposed to only twenty one percent taking a fortnight or more.

A fundamental reason for the growth in city breaks and lure of far away sunny destinations could be due to the pound’s current standing against the Euro. The pound is weak against the Euro, indeed at the moment, a Euro costs 80p. This has led to traditional destination haunts like Cyprus, Greece and Spain take a down turn in bookings with holiday makers looking at more cost effective alternatives in countries such as Romania, Bulgaria, Turkey and Morocco where the pound is stronger.

One of these countries, Romania, have certainly noticed an influx of tourism to their towns over the last few years. Last year alone the tourism market made 34 million Euros more than in the previous year. Although, many Britons choose to holiday now in eastern European countries, the infrastructure and facilities does not have enough fascination to make foreign tourists spend more money and so aid their economy. Even still, the forecasts for this year is that the amount of tourists should increase by around 13-15%.

Eighteen per cent of holiday makers surveyed were also looking to visit countries were the pound is strong. This means that America, with its weak dollar is particularly attractive with cities such as Orlanda and LA touted as would be break destinations.

All in all the future insecurity surrounding the strength of the Uk currency against other currencies as well as rising utility, fuel and mortgage payments, will certainly mean that holidays abroad to traditional destinations like Spain and Greece, occur less frequently and visits to eastern European countries like Bulgaria increase, from our need to get the most from our money in today’s hard financial environment.

Author's Biography:

Maria is a author commentating on UK Travel, such as

Posted on: June 17,2008

Email: mariatillinghous@googlemail.com
Website: DefaultValue@ThisisdefaultValue.usersshouldfillininformation.com