Holidaymakers are making a slew of last-minute bookings abroad to escape record-breaking downpours in the UK, travel companies have said.
Parts of England and Northern Ireland had the wettest July on record this year, which has caused a surge in people trying to find summer sun.
Tui, one of the world’s largest tour operators, said the recent poor weather blanketing the UK had caused a rush of last-minute bookings and that sales had already risen by 20% in August.
A spokesperson for the holiday airline Jet2holidays said: “We have continued to experience strong demand for last-minute getaways, as holidaymakers look to escape the dull and rainy weather in the UK and enjoy some much-deserved summer sun.”
The travel industry has experienced a surge in business this year after the end of pandemic restrictions on trips abroad. However, the heatwave scorching southern Europe may have given travellers pause for thought in booking a last-minute getaway.
Holidaymakers were forced to flee Rhodes, in Greece, as devastating wildfires engulfed the region last month, and this week more than 1,000 firefighters have been battling blazes in Portugal. The wildfires broke out as much of southern Europe faced searing temperatures of more than 40C, with tourists fleeing beaches and swimming pools for shade and air conditioning.
The Cerberus heatwave, named by the Italian meteorological society after the three-headed monster from Dante’s Inferno, was caused by the southern shift of the jet stream, according to the Met Office. That was also responsible for directing low-pressure systems towards the UK, bringing unsettled and cooler weather. July was the hottest month on record globally, according to the Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S). Scientists have said that human-caused global heating is responsible for the deadly heatwaves.
Consumers have also been wrestling with a cost of living crisis that has squeezed incomes, while prices for package holidays and flights to popular destinations have soared by 30% since last year.
Despite these challenges, travellers appear undeterred: data from Barclays shows that consumer spending on airlines in July rose by 39.1% compared with the previous month, while spending on travel agents climbed by 7.8%.
Travel agent Barrhead Travel said it was seeing a “huge surge” in last minute trips, with bookings up 36% for August departures compared with the same period last year.
Advantage Travel Partnership, which represents about 350 small and medium-sized travel agents, said that 18% of bookings in the past month had been for travel in August, higher than the 4% expected.
Julia Lo Bue-Said, the chief executive of the group, told the Times: “People have clearly had enough of this spell of chilly wet weather in the UK and are still desperate to get a break in the sunshine.
“Spain has dominated sales in the last few weeks but Turkey, Greece and Italy are also all selling well.”
Thomas Cook said that 30% of its bookings at the moment were for August, when normally it would be about 18-20%.
The travel firm added that mainland Spain, in particular the northern coasts of Costa Brava and Dorada, were particularly popular.
On the Beach, an online holiday retailer, told the BBC that bookings had slumped in June as the UK went through a heatwave, but as soon as the rain started in July, bookings had increased for breaks in August.
Kate Lodge, a hairdresser from Eastbourne, told the BBC: “You can’t really get cheap last-minute holidays any more. But I don’t want to book time off for my holiday and for it to be raining all week. I’m wearing winter clothes and it’s August. I don’t mind what it takes, I’ll be getting on the plane.”
Trevor Ridler, a regional manager for Fred Olsen travel agents in Eastbourne, said that bookings had increased by 25% on pre-pandemic levels, despite customers’ constrained finances.
