Britons Rush to Escape the Washout Summer
Travel companies are reporting a surge in last-minute foreign holidays as Britons rush to escape the washout summer following predictions of more rain.
Having suffered a fortnight of rain and with the Met Office this week issuing a revised forecast for wet weather until September, travel firms are being inundated with requests for late deals. It is expected that due to the bad weather in Scotland that short breaks in Scotland will be affected by people heading abroad.
Expedia.co.uk said in the last few days it had seen a sharp rise in the number of people looking for long haul destinations, with enquiries to Thailand up 165 per cent and Hong Kong up 122 per cent.
The Association of British Travel Agents (ABTA) said that members were reporting increases in business of up to 40 per cent, while Thomson said that because people had put off booking early for this summer, there were still bargains to be had.
The recession and the Met Office’s long-range forecast for a blistering “barbecue” summer meant that foreign holiday sales were running at 10 per cent lower than last year, leaving half a million up for grabs.
Families were either holidaying in the UK or simply putting it off until next year but the bad weather has now led many to reconsider.
Sean Tipton, spokesman for ABTA, said: “We were expecting a late booking market because of the recession and people worried about their jobs were leaving it as late as possible to make a decision, but the bad weather has created a real surge.
“We sold 45 million holidays last year and were running well down on that. The good news for consumers is that means there are more late deals than usual as tour operators struggle to fill capacity.
“Normally booking late in August it would be very expensive because companies are at or close to capacity, but that isn’t the case this year so there are some good deals out there. For example, I saw this week a break in Kenya, full board, leaving almost immediately for £550 per person.
