1.8 Million Head Abroad over Bank Holiday Weekend
Date published: 26 August 2010ABTA estimates that 1.8 million Brits will leave the country during the Bank Holiday weekend (27-30 August 2010)
Friday will be the busiest day, but over the whole weekend the following numbers of people will be leaving the country. In the South East over 420,000 will be leaving from Heathrow, 250,000 from Gatwick,136,000 from Stansted and 65,000 from Luton.
Meanwhile hundreds of thousands will leave through regional airports including 145,000 from Manchester, 25,000 from Leeds Bradford, 12,000 from Southampton and 65,000 from Birmingham.
In Scotland 116,000 will be flying out from Edinburgh, Glasgow and Aberdeen.
In addition 60,000 will use the Eurostar for trips to the continent 500,000 people will be heading abroad by ferry or Eurotunnel.
Beach destinations are at the top of the priority list for this time of year with the Mediterranean resorts in the Balearic Islands, mainland Spain, Turkey, Egypt, Cyprus and the Greek islands the top holiday favourites. The States is also proving to be popular with Orlando and New York the top destinations, while for European cities, Paris, Amsterdam, Venice and Dublin lead the way.
UK beach resorts on the South Coast, Devon and Cornwall also promise to be busy.
John McEwan, ABTA’s Chairman said: “This weekend is the last great getaway of the summer and I am delighted to see that so many customers are taking the opportunity to head off on holiday overseas as well as the 2 million who will be sampling the delights of our beach resorts and countryside as well as the beautiful cities here at home”
For further information
Sean Tipton, Senior Press Officer, tel: 020 3117 0513
Frances Tuke, Public Relations Manager, tel: 020 3117 0514
John de Vial Head of Communications, tel: 020 3117 0515
Out of Hours: Contact the Duty Press Officer via pager: 07659 190 987
E-mail: press@abta.co.uk
Notes to editors
ABTA – The Travel Association - was founded in 1950 and currently has 1,351 members with 5,700 outlets. Members include travel agents, tour operators and support services right across the spectrum from small family-owned businesses to the largest tour operators.
ABTA is the largest travel association in the UK and its Members provide 90% of the foreign package holidays in the UK as well as selling millions of independent travel arrangements.
In 2008 ABTA merged with the Federation of Tour Operators [FTO], thereby cementing its role as the leading travel association and increasing benefits for both ABTA and FTO Members. Both the ABTA brand which is highly recognised by consumers and the FTO brand which is well known in destinations will be retained.
As part of its comprehensive package of services to Members, ABTA, as a non-party political organisation provides an effective voice to represent the interests of its Members to government and key opinion formers at the highest levels. In the UK, these include government ministers, constituency MPs, Select Committee members, senior civil servants and members of the political opposition parties.
