Death of the staycation predicted by UK travel firm

The UK's biggest holiday firm says British holidaymakers are so fed-up with staycations they are planning to visit far flung destinations this year instead.

Thomson managing director Dermot Blastland claimed the company had taken 14 per cent more bookings for long-haul holidays compared with this time last year.

Following last year's soggy summer in the UK, holidaymakers are determined to travel to more exotic climates for guaranteed sunshine and sightseeing, he said. People are saying cobblers to the staycation, we need a proper holiday this year."

Destinations outside the expensive eurozone are proving very popular and Egypt, India, Morocco, Tunisia and Turkey are all in the top five, according to Thomson. The company will start flying direct to Costa Rica in Central America for the first time this summer.

An improvement in the economic climate combined with disillusionment with the staycation (holidays in the UK) are apparently driving the rise in overseas holiday packages.

Consumers who hung back last year are more confident about spending this year and are benefiting from better deals outside of the eurozone, added Mr Blastland.

Some holidaymakers will need to brush up on their geography before they book a long-haul holiday, however. According to a new poll of young travellers by another UK holiday company, almost 10 per cent of people don't believe Kazakhstan exists, more than half believe Timbuktu is a fictitious destination and one of the 2,865 respondents thinks France is in Spain.

More than a third of those who responded believe Atlantis is a real place and some of them might even be going to Greece this summer to look for it.

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