The most popular budget airline routes this summer

In my last post, I talked about the latest holiday destination trends being experienced by some of the largest European travel agents. Many operators have experienced a surge in popularity for Turkish holiday destinations such as Bodrum and Dalaman, with the country tipped to be the most popular destination in 2010.

While Turkey has seen an increase in popularity, Spanish destinations are still ever present at the top of many of the budget airlines popularity lists. Spain has long been a favourite of the British holidaymaker ever since the emergence of the package holiday. An array of diverse resorts, excellent climate, good food, sandy beaches and proximity to the UK have all helped contribute to Spain's popularity as a holiday destination. Aside from the typical beach resort, Spain has plenty offer in the way of city destinations. Barcelona is truly a city of culture and an excellent place to go for a short city break or longer family holiday. In fact, Barcelona saw more budget airline bookings than any other destination in June according to Low Cost Airline Guide - a site I recently used when booking my summer holidays, that searches all budget airlines to provide a comprehensive guide showing all available routes and flights in one simple search.

Alicante on the Costa Blanca and Malaga on the Costa Del Sol, are the other Spanish holiday destinations included in the five most popular June bookings on this site - these two locations have long been summer holiday mainstays for us Brits - with towns like Benidorm, Marbella and Alicante itself proving popular. Most budget airlines offer routes to Alicante and Malaga from a variety of UK airports.
Paris is another of the most popular budget destinations this June - with many of us looking to save money, the short flight to the city of romance is an attractive one and this is complemented by cheap flights and package deals to Paris.

The credit crunch has led many of us to tighten our purse strings over the last couple of years, and it is certainly worth searching around for the best deal on budget flights. No matter where you may be heading this summer, I recommend Low Cost Airline Guide to keep up to date with available budget airline routes - I saved time and money with my recent booking to The Algarve in Portugal.

Best Holiday Destinations - Trends & Stats

I have mentioned several times in my previous posts how Turkey is fast becoming the holiday destination of choice for us Brits. The decline in the economy, high unemployment, and weak Euro have all combined to cause low disposable income for a huge number of British families. This has meant people looking at cheaper alternatives to their regular holidays.
Recent stats from Co-op Travel show Turkey holidays have grown the most in the last year, with Dalaman seeing an 82% increase in bookings in 2010 compared to the same period last year. Bodrum, also in Turkey, as well as Sharm el Sheikh in Egypt, Crete in Greece and Larnaka in Cyprus all popular choices for 2010. In terms of overall popularity, Co-op list:
1) Turkey
2) Majorca
3) Orlando
as their top three holiday destinations.

Travel Supermarket list a slightly different top 3:
1) Turkey
2) Egypt
3) Spain
The common theme here of course being that Turkey leads the way in both lists. The "voucher culture" that has arisen over the last year or so has led to a huge rise in people finding 'deals' for their holidays, which Turkey package holiday suppliers have been able to offer and capitalise upon. Florida remains a popular destination for the more long-haul traveler - for car hire Florida visit Hire4Less.
It seems these trends are set to continue at least for the next year or so, with holidaymakers looking to save money where possible while the economy struggles to recover.


Turkey - soaring in popularity