Extra Days at Home Drive Surge in Online Holiday Bookings Especially From iPad's

Dec. 29, 2010 - PRLog -- The arctic weather and additional days off this week created a huge surge in holiday bookings for 2011 which are up 65% year on year, according to lowcostholidays.com, the online travel company, with traffic to their website up 150% year on year over the last few days.  The huge number of iPad’s received on Christmas Day in the UK drove searches on the site via an iPad up a massive 360%. And as the must-have item before the VAT increase, this figure is set to increase dramatically over the coming months.  

Top holiday searches on the site are for holidays to Majorca, the Canaries and Turkey with over 55% of sales over the last week for travel next summer.  Overall sales for summer 2011 are up over 50% year on year with customers booking early to make sure they don’t miss out on their annual summer holiday.

Research undertaken by lowcostholidays.com reveals the most popular names of its customers with David, John, Paul, Susan, Sarah and Karen featuring most frequently on holiday bookings.  More unusual names booking a holiday include Myfanwy escaping Little Britain for somewhere a little warmer and Jagdeep.

The top five destinations visited by lowcostholidays.com customers in 2010 were Majorca, Ibiza, Turkey, Tenerife and Egypt with bookings to a host of more unusual holiday destinations also made including Albuquerque, Colombia, Oman and Fujairah.  Egypt and the Canary Islands proved the most popular destinations for Doctors whilst Reverends spent their holidays in Malta.  

Matt Hall, Product Director at lowcostholidays.com said, “The extra days at home this week combined with the cold weather have driven more customers online to search for sunshine holidays with Majorca and Ibiza currently our two most popular summer holiday destinations.”

With the increased choice of booking options now available to consumers and the huge growth of low cost carriers, Matt Hall predicts that holiday makers will be able to take more advantage of the no frills carriers in 2011 as they expand into the leisure market.  “These are exciting times in the travel industry, with the massive internet penetration over the last 10 years and the more recent growth of mobile devices making it so easy for anyone to book a holiday no matter where they are.  Over the past few days, searches from mobile devices including the hugely popular iPad are up over 800% year on year,” adds Hall.

The latest prices from lowcostholidays.com show a 7 night package in Majorca at the Playamar Hotel on an all-inclusive basis from just £159 per person in May.  Call Freefone 0800 1116271 or www.lowcostholidays.com

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About lowcostholidays.com
• lowcostholidays.com is the consumer facing travel business of the lowcostravelgroup.com selling directly through its advanced website and call centre
• The website was launched in 2009 and is listed in the top 10 travel agency websites in the UK by Hitwise
• Using the latest technology it creates millions of holidays every day, combining the best priced airline seats from over 150 airlines with over 120,000 hotels
• The fastest website for dynamically packaging consumer holidays – faster than 95% of all other web sites in the UK
• lowcostholidays.com holds an Air Transport Organisers License from the UK Civil Aviation Authority and is a member of the Association of British Travel Agents
• Winners of the Travolution Rising Brand of the Year – 2010 and Number 20 in the 2009 Sunday Times Virgin Fast Track League Table