directline-holidays travel trends announced

Old favourites retain popularity while Dublin tops city breaks, Bulgaria sees ski growth and Majorca takes top spot overall

 

As school half-term kicks off the summer travel season, directline-holidays has revealed the growth in popularity of the company’s key destinations, year-on-year.

 

Figures from April 2011 show that the popularity of the Canary Islands and the Balearic Islands continues to grow. Compared to 2010, the year-on-year statistics show that passenger numbers to the former are up 38% and passengers to the latter are up 41%.

 

Portugal and Spain are still very much in favour, with passenger numbers up 136% and 111% respectively. Italy is also growing in popularity, as passenger numbers have grown 112%. This is likely to be due to directline-holidays’ recent introduction of breaks to the country’s Lakes and Mountains regions. The number of holidaymakers booking a break in Cyprus grew steadily in March.

 

Interest in the company’s long haul destinations is increasing with revenue in this sector up by 28% compared to April 2010. Cuba is proving especially popular with a notable increase of 190%.

 

All-inclusive packages demonstrated an increase of 6% over summer months while April 2011 delivered 20% growth in all-inclusive bookings compared to the same month last year.

 

Majorca continues to be directline-holidays’ customers’ favourite destination. The Balearic island drew the most revenue during both the summer and winter seasons. Portugal’s Algarve is second favourite in summer and fifth most popular during the winter months.

 

Tenerife is the third most popular holiday spot in summer, and rises to the second favourite in winter. Lanzarote retains year-round popularity, listed fifth most popular destination in summer and fourth in winter.

 

Year-round suntrap Sharm El Sheikh rides high as third most popular in winter, and retains sixth spot in the sizzling summer months. Dalaman in Turkey takes fourth position during the British summer.

 

Alicante, Fuerteventura, Cancun in Mexico and Paphos, Cyprus complete the list of the top 10 destinations based on passenger revenue. 

 

directline-citybreaks (www.directline-citybreaks.co.uk) is part of directline-holidays. The website offers great value flights and Eurostar journeys with hotels in more than 50 cities. Dublin has nudged Paris from its top spot in the league table, though it remains a close run race.

 

Barcelona, Venice and Nice complete the top five city break hot spots. Krakow has dipped down the list to sixth, from third most popular destination. Amsterdam, Madrid, Tallinn and Rome now rank from seventh to tenth respectively,

 

directline-skiing (www.directline-skiing.co.uk) is dedicated to helping holidaymakers find their dream ski or snowboard experience at the best available price, in one easy search.

 

France retained its pole position in terms of passengers while Bulgaria rose in popularity by 26% year on year to take second spot, followed by Austria and Italy in third and fourth places respectively. Andorra completed the top five ski destinations.

 

Norway, the USA and Sweden increased in popularity with winter sport seekers, all delivering improved passenger numbers compared to the previous ski season.