Short-Haul Destinations Recover Due To Cost-Cuts

Good news for the travel industry; ABTA is advising customers not to leave it too late to book up a holiday this year, as many popular destinations are seeing business pick up.

With under a fortnight until the beginning of the main summer school holidays, ABTA announced that the number of holidays booked for Eurozone destinations such as Spain, (+11%), Greece (+2%), and Portugal (+8%) have ‘bounced back after two tough years’.

In spite of a challenging economic climate, overall short-haul bookings (to Europe and North Africa) to date for summer 2011 have seen an increase of 9%, as indicated by figures from market research company GfK-Ascent MI.

ABTA commented: ‘This growth has been fed by hoteliers keeping prices low, tour operators offering all-inclusive options and prices in bars and restaurants coming down due to the tough economic situation on the continent.

‘Short-haul growth has also helped boost the short-break market from the UK to popular cities such as Paris, Madrid and Rome.

It also stated that ‘great deals’ are to be had in Tunisia and Egypt, which are looking to attract tourists back after the political unrest earlier in the year.

In addition, there are still bargains to be had in Turkey, which has seen ‘spectacular growth’ in recent years, ABTA said.

The amount of passengers taking cruises from the UK is expected to rise by 5%, and availability is now limited for summer peak season in the Mediterranean.

Activity holidays and luxury holidays are other sectors seeing growth, according to ABTA.