Spain remains top UK destination

Holydays to the sun are still by far the most popular type of package holiday in the UK and Spain remains the top destination, according to the 2002 Holiday Survey conducted by MORI for the Association of British Travel Agents. Over 70 per cent of package holidaymakers said they chose a summer, sun and beach holiday in the last year and there has been little change in the choice of holiday destination, Spain tops the list, followed by Greece and the Greek Islands, France, USA, Cyprus, Portugal, Italy, the Caribbean and Turkey. Besides beach holidays, 15 per cent of respondents said that they had been on a winter sun and beach holiday in the past 12 months and eight per cent have been on active holidays, such as water sports, cycling and skiing in the past year. Seven per cent have gone travelling to explore “unusual” destinations and six per cent have been cruising. While package holidays of four or more nights in Europe are still the most popular holiday format, “if money were no object” Australia remains the most popular destination. Asked “if money were no object and you could only visit one more country,” Australia came out top, followed by the United States, New Zealand and Canada with Italy and the Maldives in joint fifth place. The survey also discovered that the majority of long haul travellers are arranging their trips indepedently, as did 21 per cent of travellers in Europe.