Record Numbers Of Britons Go Overseas To Get Value For Money
by: lucyevans44
Total views: 10
Word Count: 512
The unbearable May Bank Holiday weather and driving rainstorm which met workers on their way back to work on the Tuesday, following a long weekend, has led to a big increase in orders for holidays overseas. Many people it seems are trying to dodge the erratic weather of the UK and go somewhere hot and sunny. Over the course of the bank holiday and particularly around Tuesday lunch time, online travel websites like, Thomson and First Choice experienced dramatic increases in online holiday bookings, some even by 20%.
The weather in the UK is a leading reason in driving 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 state of global financial insecurity in the UK at the moment, short city breaks are becoming well liked with people not prepared to pay out for full price holidays. The mean cost for a week’s holiday has recently been put at around two thousand pounds, according to a recent survey of around 4 thousand travellers abroad.
The small, city breaks, costing less are rising in popularity, stimulated by costs of 2 weeks abroad as opposed 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 24% 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,at the moment, a Euro costs 78pence. This has led to traditional destination haunts like Greece and Spain take a down turn in bookings with holiday makers looking at cheaper alternatives in countries such as Romania, Morocco and Bulgaria where the pound is stronger.
One of these countries, Romania, have certainly noticed a steady increase of tourism to their seaside resorts over the last few years. Last year alone the tourism market made 34 million Euros more compared to the last year. Although, many Britons choose to holiday now in eastern European countries, the infrastructure and facilities does not have enough appeal to make foreign tourists spend lots of money and so aid their economy. Even still, the predictions for this year is that the number of tourists should rise by around 12-16%.
Eighteen per cent of holiday makers surveyed were also looking to visit countries were the pound is strong. This means that the USA, with its weak dollar is particularly attractive with cities such as New York, Orlando, LA and Vegas touted as potential break destinations.
All in all the imminent uncertainty surrounding the strength of the pound 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, become less and holidays to eastern European cities like Bulgaria increase, from our need to get the most from our money in today’s tough financial climate.
www.TheWritersOnline.com
(Read or Write Your Way to Big Success)
About the Author
Lucy is a part-time writer commentating on UK Travel, such as Butlins on behalf of eComparison.
Rating: Not yet rated