Summer Season Trends
30.06.24 | OliverLast month the Mediterranean opened for the summer season and we saw many clients visiting Greece, Spain and Italy amongst others. May is also a popular month for clients travelling to the America’s and for cruises too. We summarise the most popular destinations below and highlight some of the key booking trends for 2024 so far.
It seems the post-pandemic travel rush is slowly settling somewhat and whilst destinations made popular via TV, film and social media such as Sicily (pictured below), Andalucia in southern Spain, the USA and some of the Greek Islands are still commanding high peak travel prices, other destinations such as Portugal, South Africa, South-East Asia and parts of Eastern Europe are offering excellent value this year. This is due to various factors from strong currency conversion, the local economic climate and being a lesser known destination.
A selection of our latest travel trends…
The New European Grand Tour: Sicily, Sardinia & Corsica
This combination has been particularly popular with our Australian & American clients who find the Pound and Euro great value for them right now. Combining each island in one trip is a great way of experiencing three similar yet contrasting destinations in a short space of time. The main challenge is availability as their summer season is very short with the weather best from June to September. Read more.
USA & Canada
May was very popular for trips to Canada for the Rocky Mountaineer as well as trips to Toronto, New York, Orlando and Hawaii. The main feedback from clients is the rise in additional costs such as tipping and also resort fees. We are fully aware of the implementation of the latter and there are some new rules coming into play to ensure these are clearly marked. Part of our service is to investigate these thoroughly and make sure you are aware of any local charges that my be applied whilst away.
Holidays by Rail
These have been incredibly popular this summer, whether it be travelling from the UK by train down to France, Spain and onto Portugal as an example, or flying over and touring around by train. We thought we would share some recent feedback from Mrs West who recently travelled on one of these trips:
‘We have recently returned from a fantastic rail trip to Spain and Portugal taking in Barcelona, Madrid, Seville Lisbon and Porto. We probably could have arranged this holiday independently but we know that using RB helps ensure that everything will be tailored to our requirements and will run smoothly. It’s also comforting to know that in the unlikely event of something going wrong, that we can contact the RB concierge service for assistance. Huge thanks to Kayleigh for sorting out travel arrangements and for her excellent advice on accommodation and activities in each location.’ Mrs West, May 2024
River Cruises
The Danube was the most popular river for us last month. In the past few weeks we have also made bookings on the Douro in Portugal and we are currently working on a trip on the Mekong from Vietnam into Cambodia, where Oliver visited a few years ago.
Also popular this summer so far: Malta, Madeira, Sorrento, Peru, Montenegro, Halkidiki and Cyprus.
In terms of new bookings over the past month, popular destinations include Scandinavia, Greece, Italy, India, Kenya and Portugal have all been popular.
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