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Desire to book and go on holiday on the rise, says Travelzoo

Travelzoo has seen a significant decline in interest in all-inclusive trips during the Covid-19 crisis but has found the desire among its members to book a holiday remains strong.

The holiday and leisure deals website has been surveying its UK members throughout the coronavirus lockdown despite putting its weekly Top 20 deals email on hold temporarily.

It has now reinstated the Top 20 email and says it is seeing considerable interest in domestic breaks for this year while desire to return international travel if focussed on 2021.

Latest survey results from May 7 has found all-inclusive holidays, previously the most popular among Travelzoo subscribers have been overtaken by B&B.

Asked what types of breaks members are considering in the next 12 months, 36% said all-inclusive while 39% said B&B and 35% said self-catering.

Travelzoo believes the changing mix of holiday types its members are interested in is likely to reflect concerns about the coronavirus in holiday resorts.

Prior to the Covid-19 lockdown all-inclusive was regular at the top of Travelzoo’s surveys with more than 50% saying they would prefer that style of holiday.

The May 7 survey also found signs of a changing picture in terms of length of stay members were hoping to take with longer durations becoming more popular.

For overseas holidays longer 8-14 nights were preferred by over half of respondents as opposed to shorter 5-7 nights, which had been gaining in popularity prior to the pandemic.

And for UK breaks, although the most popular duration was three to four nights (44%), more than a quarter (26%) opted for five to seven-night holidays.

Earlier results from 1,700 respondents who took the survey from April 29 found increasing week-on-week interest from members to receiving travel deals.

It also found people are increasingly likely to make a booking, with 74% saying they would book now as long as they were offered flexible cancellation terms, up from 54%.

Travelzoo also asked when people were likely to book and go on domestic and overseas holidays.

Increasing numbers of respondents said they would go on a domestic and overseas holiday from September this year, reflecting the lockdown issues that travel will have this summer.

For overseas holidays around a third (31%) said they were considering a holiday in 2021 or later, down from 36% the previous week. Only 5% said they were not interested.

When asked when they would feel comfortable booking an overseas holiday 16% said in 2021, but 16% said September and 14% said June and July.

Greece was found to be the most sought-after destination, with France, Spain, Italy and the US also popular, and Cornwall was the most popular domestic destination.

Asked about cruise, 33% of respondents said they would be going on a cruise and over half said that would be in 2021.

James Clarke, Travelzoo UK general manager, said: “During these unprecedented and challenging times for the industry, Travelzoo has asked its UK members to share their thoughts on travel.

“Are they looking to book? Where do they want to go?  And most importantly, when will they make the booking? The good news is, people still have a strong desire to travel.

“Many are ready to go as soon as they are able, and with the combination of greater flexibility and great deals, they are comfortable booking right now.”

Travelzoo was due to release its latest consumer survey data to trade partners this morning at 9am in a special online webcast.

 

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