Surge in holiday bookings expected this weekend as Covid testing is scrapped

A travel company is bracing for what could be its biggest weekend of summer holiday bookings in history.

Demand for trips away has soared after the announcement that coronavirus testing for fully vaccinated people travelling to England will be dropped from February 11.

But holiday bookings are expected to peak this weekend as it follows the first pay day after Christmas for millions of workers.

Simon Cooper, chief executive of online travel firm On the Beach, thinks the coming days will be ‘the busiest we’ve ever been in our history’ since launching in 2004.

‘We would expect it to be a bumper weekend, with people who’ve been researching holidays all the way through the month jumping on and booking,’ he said.

‘The overall volume has been warming up through the month.’

He believes the number of people going on holiday abroad this summer will be ‘as big, if not bigger’ than before the pandemic.

Sales director Helen Roberts added sales have been ‘steadily building’ in recent weeks – especially for ‘bucket list’ style holidays.

‘The easing of testing measures combined with a January pay day means lots of people will be ready to press the book button this weekend,’ she said.

‘Many of our customers haven’t been away for two years or more and are ready to splash out and have a holiday of a lifetime to look forward to.

‘Our stores have got appointments lined up over the weekend and our call centre is buzzing with calls already – it’s the moment our travel experts have been waiting for.’

The company flagged Greek islands, Turkey and Dubai as being some of the most popular locations – but people are avoiding Spain as it requires all arrivals aged over 12 to be fully vaccinated.

Luxury travel company Kuoni said it also expects a ‘busy weekend’, highlighting the Maldives, Mauritius, the Caribbean, Africa, Italy and Greece as popular destinations.

Paul Charles, boss of travel consultancy The PC Agency, said many will book holidays this weekend as they ‘realise they need something to look forward to’.

He added: ‘Airlines, hotels and tour operators are seeing booking levels returning and I’m expecting summer 2022 to be the busiest ever for overseas trips as consumers spend after two years of mostly being locked down.’

EasyJet chief executive Johan Lundgren said the easing of Covid-19 restrictions means the UK is ‘leading on bookings versus Europe for the first time since spring 2020’.

The airline plans to operate its largest number of summer flights between the UK and beach destinations this year.

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