Scramble to save our summer: Holidaymakers race to snap up last-minute trips as last month’s bookings for August trips quadruple with sun-starved Brits desperate to escape UK after weeks of rain
- It comes after the UK experienced its sixth wettest July since records began
- Have you booked a last-minute holiday? Email [email protected]
Sun-starved Brits are snapping up last-minute foreign holidays in record numbers in a desperate attempt to dodge the UK’s dreary weather.
Bookings by jetsetters in July for trips abroad this month more than quadrupled, according to Advantage Travel Partnership, which represents a fifth of the nation’s travel agents.
It comes after summer plans for millions of Britons were washed out after the UK experienced its wettest July since 2009, with an average of 140.1mm rain last month, the sixth highest total for the month since records began in 1836.
The damp conditions continued this month when Storm Antoni pummeled the UK, bringing 43mm of rainfall – half of what is normally seen in the whole of August – last weekend, prompting a fresh surge in holiday bookings.
According to British Airways Holidays, there was a 22 per cent year-on-year increase in last-minute bookings over the past 30 days.
Have you booked a last-minute holiday to escape the dismal UK weather? Email [email protected]
Sun-starved Brits are snapping up last-minute foreign holidays in record numbers in a desperate attempt to dodge the UK’s dreary weather (pictured are holidaymakers at Weymouth in July)
Summer plans for millions of Brits were washed out after the UK experienced its wettest July since 2009 (pictured are holidaymakers braving the rain in Manchester with their suitcases)
Bookings in July for trips abroad this month more than quadrupled, according to Advantage Travel Partnership (pictured: British holidaymakers enjoying the beach in Benidorm, Spain last month)
Brits have been desperately snapping up last-minute holidays in a bid to find some summer sun
Among those desperate to escape the soggy British summer was hairdresser Kate Lodge, who said she will ‘pay whatever’ for a trip abroad with her son.
READ MORE: So much for summer! Britain had on average more than 5.5 inches of rain as sunseekers endured the sixth wettest July since records began
‘I don’t want to book time off for my holiday and for it to be raining all week. I’m wearing winter clothes and it’s August. I don’t mind what it takes, I’ll be getting on the plane,’ the mother from Eastbourne, East Sussex, told the BBC.
Indie Fox from Sheffield was also one of the holidaymakers scrambling to get away from the dismal UK weather. She snapped up a last-minute trip to Cyprus.
She tweeted: ‘Finally booked a holiday for a bit of sun this year. Cyprus in 9 days time!’
Brendan Cox was jetting off today on his holiday today. He tweeted: ‘Last-minute holiday planning. Off to Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan tomorrow! Anyone been? Any recommendations?’
Robert New, from Portsmouth, Hampshire, was looking to escape the dank British weather and enjoy a trip to Berlin, Germany.
He told MailOnline: ‘I’m jetting off to Berlin with @LewisGos92 to get some 30-degree summer night city goodness and where nobody knows us.’
This woman woman protects herself from the heavy rain in Speke, Liverpool, in July
And this couple in Belfast were using an umbrella to shelter from a heavy downpour on July 31
While in Benidorm, it was a completely different tale, as Brit holidaymakers were able relax on sun loungers and towels at the beach in blissful sunshine
Becky Rose Carver from London said: ‘Booked Dubrovnik for a last-minute holiday. Any recommendations welcome.’
READ MORE: Europe heatwave is seeing an INCREASE in tourists from the UK! Holidaymakers worldwide turn their backs on melting Mediterranean… but Brits flock to scorching weather
Other British tourists have been revelling in the heat, enjoying sunbathing on beaches across Benidorm in Spain and Albufeira in Portugal while others sought relief from the searing sunshine by having drinks at nearby bars.
While Sandra Ubege tweeted: ‘I’ve been on holiday in Spain since Sunday and it’s absolutely lovely.’
Meanwhile, other Brits have been sharing their disappointment after deciding to have a ‘staycation’ in the UK.
Sharing a picture of a dismal and wet Cromer, on the Norfolk coast, the man tweeted: ‘This is the last time I ever book a summer holiday in the UK!! Excitedly Turn up on the first day to the beach in my swim shorts and it looks like this. What the hell am I gonna do for a week here?’
Barclays said transactions with travel agents in July were up by 11 per cent, compared with 3.4 per cent in the previous month.
Nicolas Bresch, the UK managing director of Club Med, said Brits were desperate to escape the dismal weather.
Britons have been taking to Twitter to share their summer holiday experiences – with many booking last-minute trips abroad to escape the dank weather
‘With July the wettest in over a decade, it is no wonder Brits have been thinking about a last-minute escape to warmer climates,’ he told The Times.
‘For the last week of July we saw sales increase by 146 per cent for departures in August and September when compared with the same week in 2022.’
Mr Bresch added the majority of bookings were made on weekdays ‘perhaps as people sought to kickstart their week or weekend with something to look forward to’, which went against the usual trend of people booking at the weekends, especially in the peak January window.
Meanwhile, industry chiefs claimed that Brits had been largely undeterred by wildfires which have ravaged the likes of the Greek island of Rhodes and Portugal.
Julia Lo Bue-Said, chief executive of the Advantage Travel Partnership, the UK’s largest group of independent travel agents, said people were fed up with Britain’s washout summer.
‘It’s been a bumper few weeks for travel,’ she said. ‘Last week saw an eight per cent increase in bookings versus the week before, with almost a fifth for travel this month,’ she added.
‘People have clearly had enough of this spell of chilly wet weather in the UK and are still desperate to get a break in the sunshine. Spain has dominated sales in the last few weeks but Turkey, Greece and Italy are also all selling well.’
Have you booked a last-minute holiday to escape the dismal UK weather? Email [email protected]
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