The Advantage Travel Partnership reveal booking trends for the upcoming May half term and school summer holidays.

May half-term

May is proving an incredibly popular month for holidays with bookings across our travel agent partners exceeding expectations. Booking data from The Advantage Travel Partnership indicated that people are favouring last-minute bookings for half-term this year with 27 percent of May half term departure bookings having been made since the start of March 2024 showing that 1 in 4 have booked within 12 weeks of departure. 

With the UK having experienced wet weather and cold snaps throughout this spring, people have been seizing the opportunity to book a getaway to warmer destinations. The demand for hotter weather is clear with Spain leading the top selling destinations into the summer with the Canaries (led by Tenerife), followed by the Balearics, and then Greece as holidaymakers seek guaranteed sunshine and look to take advantage of keen pricing as some destinations open up for the summer season.

Long-haul is also proving popular accounting for 13 percent of all departures with the most in demand destinations being Dubai and New York. City breaks account for 7 percent of May half term bookings with the top choices being Paris, Krakow, Rome, New York and Barcelona.

Advantage is continuing to see all-inclusive as the most popular board basis taking a 42 percent share of all departures as people continue to look for ways to travel abroad whilst also managing their budgets.                                                                                                                       

Summer Holidays:

Advantage data for the school summer departures including Scotland booked up to the end of April 2024, show that the UK is gearing up for a busy period of travel to some of the most loved European hot spots. The top five destinations are Tenerife, Majorca, Alicante, Antalya and Lanzarote.

Summer holiday bookings for long-haul destinations are also proving popular taking 12 percent of all departures with the most sought-after spots being Orlando, New York and Cancun. City breaks are accounting for 5 percent of departures with the top choices for summer being Rome, Paris, Prague, Krakow and Barcelona.

All-inclusive continues to be the most popular board basis for summer taking 46 percent of all departures and nearly 1 in 5 bookings for summer holiday departures have been made since the start of April suggesting people are really beginning to think about their next big getaway. 

Cruise volumes continue to be strong accounting for a third of all revenue and Advantage report an increase in suite sales and a higher proportion of new to cruise customers than in previous years.

Kelly Cookes, Chief Commercial Officer of The Advantage Travel Partnership, said:

“Performance so far has been really strong for both the May half term and the school summer holidays. There is undeniably a huge appetite for travel and it’s great to see such a wide range of destinations being booked. Travellers are clearly still looking to manage costs when it comes to booking holidays which is evident in the high percentage of all-inclusive bookings our travel partners are seeing. The increase in all-inclusive bookings is driven by a mix of motivations as consumers are planning more and are increasingly more cost conscious than they have been in recent years.

May half term is extremely well sold but there still some great deals out there and it’s great to see that people are already looking ahead to their summer holidays as we would always recommend booking early as there’s more availability in terms of destination, duration and hotels as well as better deals and low deposits.

When it comes to booking holidays, we always advise booking with a travel agent. They have an incredible amount of knowledge and experience in searching for the best deals available and are best placed to help consumers research the best destination to visit for your budget.”