As we approach the busy summer holiday season, the latest industry figures from GFK make for positive reading, with package bookings for this summer up 7% compared to the same time last year.

While the Western Mediterranean maintains its appeal, it’s also encouraging that British travellers are returning to favourite destinations such as Turkey, Tunisia and Egypt, following a tough couple of years.  Industry figures show that bookings for Turkey packages are up 83% compared to the same time last year and bookings for Egypt have increased by 55%. 

While these early bookings figures are encouraging, we know that thousands of customers are yet to book their summer holidays. With this in mind, Abta is continuing to demonstrate the benefits of booking with our Members. As holidaymakers choose between competitive summer offers, Abta’s ‘Travel with Confidence’ campaign shows that by booking with an Abta Member customers can be safe in the knowledge that they’ve booked with a reputable travel company, backed by the offer of support, protection and expertise.

A few weeks ago, we announced the launch of the latest phase of this advertising campaign, targeting 18-35 year olds across Facebook, Instagram and Youtube. Just four weeks in, it has already delivered some excellent results: the advertising has been seen 6.4 million times, with video views tracking at 1.8 million.

The campaign builds on the success of the advertising to families and over 55s from earlier this year, which reached 1.3 million people. The second phase, in April, supported our business travel Members and engaged almost half a million people who book business travel arrangements.
We hope to keep up the momentum of these high engagement rates over the next four weeks and look forward to sharing the overall results with Members.

The social assets, which are proving successful with the target audience, are available to download on the Member Zone. With the campaign already off to a great start, we are encouraging Members to promote your Abta Membership by using these assets and sharing the ‘Travel with Confidence’ messaging on your own social channels using #beABTAsmart.