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Sun-seeking Britons are rushing to book winter holidays in cheaper upcoming destinations while increasingly paying for trips in instalments, boosting travel agents and airlines in a traditionally quieter part of the year.
Leading carriers and travel companies have reported a jump in bookings, with a surge in demand for getaways to north Africa and the United Arab Emirates alongside sustained appetite for Mediterranean countries.
But as living costs continue to bite, more Britons are spreading the cost of holidays over a longer period and booking either months in advance or at the last minute to find the best deals, according to travel executives.
Garry Wilson, chief executive of easyJet holidays, said the travel arm of the budget airline expected bookings in the year to September 2025 to be up about 25 per cent on the previous 12 months, with Egypt and Tunisia driving growth in winter.
While Malta, Cyprus and Majorca remained popular, “there are a lot of customers who are looking to try new destinations [and] for great value”, he said, adding that paying in monthly instalments was “increasing in popularity”.
Online travel agent On the Beach this week said bookings for winter, which runs between November and April, were at record levels and up 25 per cent year on year.
Bookings for Morocco, Tunisia and Egypt have soared 50 per cent compared with winter 2023, and demand for the Mediterranean remains robust despite the wave of anti-tourism protests this year.
Chief executive Shaun Morton said that although resorts in Greece and Turkey were stretching the start and end of their seasons, Britons were being drawn by “some very good all-inclusive products in north Africa” with guaranteed sun.
Use of monthly instalments had “never been more popular”, he added, with the current take-up rate at 80 per cent and winter bookings representing 15 per cent of the travel agent’s total business.
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The race for winter sun at affordable prices comes amid sustained holiday demand following the pandemic. Consumer card spending on travel rose by 6 per cent year on year in November, Barclays said this week, as “the winter blues prompted Brits to book getaways”.
The UK average mean temperature in November was 6.6C, according to the Met Office, the national weather service. In the same month, the average temperature in Marrakech, Morocco is 22C, while the average daily maximum temperature in Cairo, Egypt’s capital, is 24.9C.
Donat Rétif, chief executive of loveholidays, said warm weather in north Africa was driving business, with bookings at the UK’s largest online travel agent for Tunisia, Morocco and Egypt up by 128 per cent, 36 per cent and 31 per cent respectively compared with 2023.
Another popular destination is the UAE: in October Virgin Atlantic increased flights from the UK to Dubai from three times a week to once a day, and loveholidays and On the Beach have reported higher demand.
Chinese online travel agent Trip.com said Christmas bookings by UK travellers to the UAE, whose capital is Abu Dhabi, had surged by 170 per cent compared with last year.
Andy Washington, general manager for Europe, said the UAE had been boosted by being one of the first countries to open its borders after Covid and that milder temperatures in winter compared with summer was driving bookings.
Some 2,105 flights were due to take off between Dubai and the UK between October and December, equating to more than 964,000 seats, the most ever offered in that quarter of the year, according to aviation data analyst Cirium.
Issam Kazim, chief executive of the Dubai Corporation for Tourism and Commerce Marketing, said Britons, who are the second-largest market after travellers from India, were attracted by the country’s “safety, security and infrastructure”.
