British travellers are, on the whole, travelling more since last year with a 33% increase in people flying between 30 December 2019 and 7 January 2020 and a 3% increase in Christmas travel between 21 and 29 December 2019.

For the entire Christmas period (Christmas and New Year) Spain is the clear favourite, taking the top spot in the top ten country destinations for UK travellers looking for winter sun, a dose of culture or to reconnect with family and friends at this festive time of year.

For city destinations, Cape Town (South Africa) is the city winner for Christmas travel, with year-on-year passenger growth more than doubling (139%) very closely followed by Mumbai (138%) and Sydney (107%). Over New Year (30th December – 5th January), Melbourne tops the board, with a steep increase (175%) over the same period last year. Bucharest (100%) follows with Edinburgh in third place – enjoying the growth of more than half over the same period in 2018 (57%).

UK travellers stay within the UK

Over the Christmas booking period, the seventh most-booked country destination this year is the UK itself. The UK also ranks fourth in the most popular destinations to visit over the New Year travel period, with Ireland just behind in the sixth position for flights taken.

Bangkok tops the leader-board for both Christmas and New Year travellers, with substantial savings to be made by post-Christmas travellers: the average cost of a ticket to Bangkok over Christmas is GBP 1,514 (USD 1,946), compared to GBP 1,138 over the New Year.