More people are flying long-haul for Christmas breaks, according to Skyscanner. The travel search site says flight data reveals that the number of people planning to spend the festive season in long-haul locations is on the rise.
While Iceland is showing the greatest increase in searches over the Christmas period, British travellers are becoming increasingly more adventurous with their holidays, with flight searches to far away destinations such as China up 55% on last year.
Singapore is also proving a popular destination for British travellers with searches up 43%, with Sri Lanka, a long term favourite and popular alternative to Thailand, up 21% this Christmas.
Other long haul destinations showing significant increases in flight searches over the festive period include Australia (19%), UAE (17%) and next year’s World Cup host Brazil (14%).
Overall, Spain is still the most popular destination for celebrating Britons this Christmas, although searches during this busy period are down 3% year on year, perhaps showing our appetite for the traditional British hot spots is waning.
Skyscanner’s Mary Porter said: “Our travel trends report highlighted China as one of the fastest growing destinations and it is interesting to see that this trend appears to be continuing over the Christmas period. While Spain remains the most popular destination, we can see that British holidaymakers are becoming more adventurous with their travels, heading to more exotic locations such as Sri Lanka and Singapore for the festive break.”
Top five destinations with the biggest increase in searches this Christmas:
- Iceland 95%
- China 55%
- Netherlands 35%
- Singapore 26%
- Sri Lanka 21%
* Search data as of Nov 8 for departure dates on 22,23 or 24 December.
