UK holidaymakers ‘heading to lesser-known areas of popular countries’

UK holidaymakers are flocking to new areas within popular destinations which have been investing in tourism, a travel company has reported.

EasyJet Holidays said it has seen a surge in bookings for trips to parts of Greece, Egypt and Morocco not traditionally in demand from overseas visitors.

Chief executive Garry Wilson told the PA news agency that customers are being attracted to locations where improvements in hotels and infrastructure are being made.

He said: “There’s a lot of investment happening in Greece. Some of the smaller, maybe lesser-known areas have become popular.

“Certainly the Peloponnese looks to be growing in popularity. We launched Skiathos this year and that’s been really popular with customers.

“We’ve launched Luxor (in Egypt) for the winter with Nile cruises and hotel stays. That’s been enormously popular.

“There’s been a lot of investment in (Agadir, Morocco) and we’re seeing that’s increasing in popularity as well.

“Wherever there’s been investment in new hotels or new infrastructure in new areas, customers seem to jump on to that and think ‘let’s try that out’, as opposed to brand new destinations.”

Mr Wilson described how Montenegro – which was previously “the big one everyone talked about” as a growing holiday location – “does OK” but new resorts within established holiday destinations “get customers quite excited”.

EasyJet Holidays, a division of airline easyJet, launched in 2019 and is the UK’s fifth biggest package holiday company.

It saw pre-tax profits jump to £73 million for the period between April and June, up from £49 million a year earlier.

EasyJet expects its holidays arm to deliver annual pre-tax profits of more than £180 million, compared with £122 million in the year to the end of September 2023.

Mr Wilson said: “We’re seeing continued growth.

“When we launched, we talked about wanting to become a major player, and I think we’ve really established ourselves now within that space.

“We’re just excited about how big the company could be.

“What we’re really focused on is sustainable, profitable growth, by being able to offer really good value to customers.”