Comparison site expects pick up this week after the return of schools
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Icelolly.com Pulse: Search for summer holidays cools after COVID-19 roadmap spike
An initial surge in holiday demand following the UK government’s roadmap out of lockdown announcement appears to have subsided.
The weekly Pulse tracker produced by comparison site icelolly.com saw a tailing off of search growth last week.
This saw the proportion of 2021 summer search traffic fall although the key travel months remained the most popular.
May 2021 continued to be the biggest loser of share while August 2022 saw the largest pick-up.
Positive noises coming out of Cyprus about a return of Bits who have had the COVID-19 vaccine saw Larnaca and Paphos gain more than 40% search share week-on-week.
While the top 10 remained relatively stable, the Antalya area of Turkey saw its search share drop the most of any in the top 10, with a 13% fall.
UK destinations continued to prove popular for Easter breaks.
Cornwall’s share dropped again, while the Lake District became the second most-searched for destination.
There was a big jump for Scotland and London and Norfolk also saw share increase.
The 31-90 day booking window continued to grow as summer moves closer. Within that period there was a peak for 31-34 days from search covering the Easter weekend.
Chris Webber, head of travel deals at icelolly.com, said the site expects the return of schools this week to have an impact on search and booking activity.
“Searches and bookings plateaued after the initial surge following the government announcement, but still remained positive in comparison to recent times.
“There’s still a strong desire to get away this summer and though share fell for peak summer travel overseas, July to September are still the most-searched travel months.
“In the UK, there’s a definite focus on the Easter weekend for searches – that’s driving an increase week-on-week in searches for travel 1 to three months from search date.
“With kids back in school this week we could see a further change in behaviour as people potentially have a little more time and headspace to dream of a holiday.”
