British holiday market starting to move

What is more, while most of the UK endured the wet weather for most of the Jubilee celebrations, the weather has been awful over the past few days with hose pipe bans being lifted and people being forced to put their central heating back on. And all this, according to UK travel industry sources, is helping to drive late demand for summer holidays.

The latest UK package holiday market figures are still down on last year but they are better than they were at the end of April and there has been a definite increase is sales over the past week. “The Jubilee has given the country that feel good factor it was lacking back, so people are feeling happier and the weather is just so terrible the staycations are being thrown out of the window with Brits desperate to get some sunshine,” Hugh Morgan, Managing Director of The Monarch Travel Group told the Bulletin. “The revival of the Pound, which has been as high as 1.25 recently, is also helping to boost Euro zone tourism but, the Balearics has two serious problems to deal with, well three. “Firstly, every one is aware of Spain's financial crisis but what most consumers do not know about is that AENA are putting airport taxes up in July and now we have the threat of strike action in the islands during peak season. “Those who have booked and paid, will not be affected by the airport tax hike but the late bookers, and this year is the latest booking market I have ever known, will possibly be hit by an increase in holiday prices as the industry tries to absorb the airport tax hikes. The price of fuel has come down, so that could help to offset increases to a certain extent, but, as we have all been trying to get through to AENA, it is not a very sensible move,” Morgan warned. “There are still plenty of holidays unsold for the Balearics in July and August and those people who have been hanging out for the last minute, do appear to be finally booking, but we may not get a clear idea of how the summer is going to perform until as late as the middle of next month, that is how late people are going to be booking. “I'm optimistic it will end up being a good summer, holiday prices remain reasonable and the strong Pound is giving people more bang for their buck in resort but we can't force the market. We've just got to wait and see,” he admitted.