Stay up to date with notifications from The Independent

Notifications can be managed in browser preferences.

Family Christmas holiday bookings to Canary Islands surge after rule of six announced

Company sees 97 per cent bookings spike

Qin Xie
Friday 18 September 2020 12:38 BST
Comments
There's been a surge in bookings for multi-generation holidays abroad after rule of six was announced
There's been a surge in bookings for multi-generation holidays abroad after rule of six was announced (Getty Images)

Your support helps us to tell the story

From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.

At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.

The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.

Your support makes all the difference.

Bookings for multi-generational holidays over the Christmas period have surged after the rule of six was announced, according to a leading package holiday company.

Teletext Holidays said that it saw a 97 per cent spike in bookings during the second week of September compared to the previous week.

It also saw a 164 per cent increase in the number of passengers as well as a 26 per cent growth in the average size of the groups travelling together.

The top selling destination was the Canary Islands, despite the fact that they remain on the government’s no-go and quarantine lists.

Wayne Perks, managing director of Teletext Holidays, said: "Looking at the booking data, we can see a definite trend of people gearing up for a big family Christmas in the sun, with several generations planning to travel abroad together, since the 'rule of six' was announced.

"The most popular Christmas destinations for our customers are currently the Canary Islands, followed by Egypt, Malta and Dubai.”

He added: "We are surprised by the surge in bookings, which came since the announcement, and despite current FCO advice, people are obviously hoping that more travel corridors will soon open, and in particular there seems to be a real appetite for people to spend some quality time with their extended family, whilst enjoying the warmer weather."

Turkey has also seen a surge in interest from British travellers as it becomes one of the few destinations left on the travel corridors list.

Skyscanner said that Istanbul, Dalaman and Antalya are now in its top 10 most-searched destinations for the first time for the month of September.

In fact, searches for those destinations have gone up by 115 per cent between the last two weeks of August (12 to 31) and the first two weeks of September (1 to 14).

Air bridges: Slovenia added to England's quarantine list

Holiday comparison site TravelSupermarket has seen similar spikes in interest for package holidays to Turkey.

For the week of 8 to 15 September, 30 per cent of all package holiday comparison searches for departure between 11 September and 31 October were for Turkey.

This time last year the number was just eight per cent, and it’s now generating more searches than Greece (15 per cent) and Italy (10 per cent) combined.

Join our commenting forum

Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies

Comments

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged inPlease refresh your browser to be logged in