Last weekend in October worst for ‘winter blues’

Oct. 28, 2010 - PRLog -- The UK’s fastest growing online independent travel agent has released site statistics that show the last weekend in October was the time of the year in 2008 and 2009 when they received the most bookings for holidays the following year. As such, the site has branded this weekend the ‘winter blues weekend’, as it is when they expect most to plan their escape from the UK and the gloomy weather once again.



www.sunshine.co.uk has looked into past booking and search statistics on the site to determine when the most people visit the site to book a holiday for the following year. 1,489 British holidaymakers were also polled, to find out more about their holiday habits.



62% claimed booking a holiday ‘made them feel better’ and 11% said they hated ‘going a year without a trip around’. A third, 34%, admitted to looking up holidays whilst they were at work.



78% of the respondents claimed to book holidays in the winter months. When asked by http://www.sunshine.co.uk why they did so, 59% claimed it gave them ‘something to look forward to’.



Respondents were also asked ‘does the weather in the UK made you feel low?’ and a high number, 67%, said that it did. One in ten, 9%, even went as far as saying the weather in the UK made them ‘want to live abroad one day’.



When asked, ‘Do you return from a holiday feeling refreshed?’ 97% of people said that they did, but the study also found that the average time it takes people to feel as though they need another holiday is after just four weeks of being home.



Respondents were also asked to determine, out of Birthdays, Christmas and holidays, what they most looked forward to in a year. 82% of people picked ‘holidays’.



Chris Brown, co-founder of http://www.sunshine.co.uk, commented on the findings;



“We thought it would be fun to look in more detail at the day when most visitors to our site are thinking about and booking their holiday for the following year. The last weekend of October is on track to be a popular time for bookings yet again and, I can only assume the recent plunge in temperatures has a lot to do with that.



“October is a time when the heat, if any, of summer has disappeared and Christmas is just a little too far away to be excited about, so people get left with nothing much to enjoy or look forward to. Booking a holiday certainly seems a remedy for most!”



LINK http://www.sunshine.co.uk



ENDS



For more information, or to arrange interviews with Chris Brown, please contact Shannon Haigh of 10 Yetis PR Agency on 01452 348211 or email shannon@10yetis.co.uk

Editors Notes

sunshine.co.uk is the UK's leading online independent travel agent and was founded by Chris Brown and Chris Clarkson, the same people behind Holiday Watchdog which was bought by TripAdvisor in February 2008 for an undisclosed amount of money.



Chris Brown of sunshine.co.uk was a ‘Secret Millionaire’ in the series on Channel 4 that began in October 2010.



Sunshine.co.uk offers low cost holidays and budget flights to destinations all over the world as well as great deals and discounted hotels.



TravelMole recently voted sunshine.co.uk as the best Travel Agency in the 2010 web awards.