19 Jul
2019

Over two million head off overseas for the ‘Great Summer Getaway’

ABTA – The Travel Association estimates that over two million British holidaymakers are set to head overseas for summer holidays this weekend (19-21 July), which for the majority of schools in England and Wales marks the start of the summer break with Friday 19 July the busiest day of the weekend.

Summer temperatures around the Mediterranean hotspots popular with families are set to hit the 30s with guaranteed sunshine. Spain remains the number one destination for families but ABTA members are also reporting strong demand for Bulgaria, Croatia, Turkey and Morocco while families looking for a last minute deal should head to the Greek islands, the Canaries and the Amalfi coast. Long haul, Florida and Dubai are leading the way. 

Overseas city breaks are always popular at this time of year for families looking to experience different cultures, cuisine and architecture. European cities are leading the way, in particular Amsterdam, Barcelona, Budapest and Rome. 

Domestic holidays are expected to be popular too this summer, with travel agents and tour operators reporting strong interest in the West Country, Norfolk and Suffolk and seaside resorts such as Blackpool and Bournemouth.

Airports in the South East are expecting a very busy weekend with hundreds of thousands passengers expected to depart from Heathrow and Gatwick, 150,000 from Stansted, 95,000 from Luton and over 12,000 from Southend. 

160,000 are due to depart from Manchester airport, 31,000 from East Midlands airport and although the Scottish schools are well into their summer holidays, hundreds of thousands will still be leaving from Scottish airports with over 77,000 from Edinburgh alone. 

Other regional airports, ports and the channel tunnel will also be extremely busy over the weekend with hundreds of thousands leaving the country.

Mark Tanzer, ABTA Chief Executive, said: “Thousands of families will be jetting off this weekend as the majority of schools in the UK start their summer break. Good temperatures and sunshine are guaranteed at all our favourite hotspots around the Mediterranean and ABTA advice is to slap on the sun cream and copy the locals by heading for a long, leisurely lunch when the sun is at its strongest.“ 

“The roads in the UK will be very busy and families should leave extra time to get to their departure ports and if using public transport, check in advance for any engineering work.”

For further information, contact:

Sean Tipton ABTA Media Relations Manager Tel: 020 3117 0513

Out of Hours: Contact the Duty Press Officer via landline: 020 3693 0183

Web: www.abta.com
Twitter: @ABTAtravel

Notes to editors

ABTA has been a trusted travel brand for over 65 years. Our purpose is to help our Members to grow their businesses successfully and sustainably, and to help their customers travel with confidence. 
The ABTA brand stands for support, protection and expertise. This means consumers have confidence in ABTA and a strong trust in ABTA Members. These qualities are core to us as they ensure that holidaymakers remain confident in the holiday products that they buy from our Members. 

We help our Members and their customers navigate through today's changing travel landscape by raising standards in the industry; offering schemes of financial protection; providing an independent complaints resolution service should something go wrong; giving guidance on issues from sustainability to health and safety and by presenting a united voice to government to ensure the industry and the public get a fair deal.

ABTA has around 1,200 Members, with a combined annual UK turnover of £38 billion. For more details about what we do, what being an ABTA Member means and how we help the British public travel with confidence visit www.abta.com.