TWO MILLION HEAD AWAY FOR THE BANK HOLIDAY WEEKEND
Date published: 20 August 2008ABTA estimates that two million Brits will escape the wettest August for years by heading away over the Bank Holiday weekend (22-25 August).
Friday and Saturday will be the busiest days with almost one million flying from the South East alone. Over 420,000 will be leaving from Heathrow, 260,000 from Gatwick, 160,000 from Stansted and 80,000 from Luton.
Meanwhile hundreds of thousands will leave through regional airports including 160,000 from Manchester, 12,000 from Southampton, 70,000 from Birmingham and 50,000 from Nottingham East Midlands. In Scotland 140,000 will be flying out from Edinburgh, Glasgow and Aberdeen.
In addition 85,000 will use the Eurostar for trips to the continent. A further 400,000 people will be heading abroad by ferry or Eurotunnel.
Mediterranean resorts in the Balearic Islands, mainland Spain, and the Greek islands remain the summer holiday favourites, while Turkey, Cyprus and Portugal follow closely behind.
City breaks have sold very well and old favourites New York, Amsterdam, Dublin and Rome lead the way.
Justin Fleming ABTA President said: “The August bank holiday is our traditional goodbye to the summer and is always very busy. This year is no exception with large numbers escaping to guaranteed sunshine, sandy beaches and warm seas.”
For further information
Sean Tipton, Communications Officer, tel: 020 7307 1902/1900, Frances Tuke, Public Relations Manager, tel: 020 7307 1903/1900, David Marshall, Head of Policy and Communications, tel: 020 7307 1912, Mobile: 07894 073010Out of Hours: Contact the Duty Press Officer via pager: 07659 190987
E-mail: press@abta.co.uk
Web: www.abta.com
Notes to editors
ABTA was founded in 1950 and currently has 1,600 Members with 6,300 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.
As part of its comprehensive package of services to Members, ABTA, as a non-party political organisation, also 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 in both Westminster and the devolved administrations in Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland.
In Europe, ABTA is forming close ties with members of the European Parliament, the European Commission and staff within the Director Generals’ Secretariats. ABTA works in partnership with ECTAA (the European grouping of travel agents and tour operators’ associations) to lobby on interests relevant to its Members.
