As Christmas and New Year’s Eve are approaching, more and more people start packing their suitcases and prepare for a wonderful holiday vacation. This year, TUI Holiday Atlas surveyors asked Europeans about their preferences and revealed the most popular destinations. It looks like warm and mild temperature destinations are obvious leaders and are traditionally popular for the winter season.
The Canary Islands are a particularly popular destination for Christmas holidays. Gran Canaria is a doubtless leader, with Lanzarote and Tenerife also being present in the top five. Phuket hotels have always been popular with Europeans, and this trend is not going anywhere. The popular Thai resort is also on the leading positions together with Hurghada in Egypt.
There is also a more detailed statistics on the country basis. For example, Danes, Norwegians, Swedes, and Finns voted for Gran Canaria and named it their most sought-after destination. However, the opinion of Brits, Belgians, and the Irish was different. They picked Tenerife as their top choice. Perhaps, Fuerteventura hotels have particularly many German tourists because they picked this Canary destination as their prime choice. French vacationers, in their turn, prefer to stick to Lanzarote.
Austrians and the Swiss like longer flights and more exotic destinations. For them, Malé in the Maldives is the best destination for winter travel. The Dutch are no less excited about long-distance travel and prefer less popular choices. They named Curacao Island of the Antilles their dream destination. The Poles liked the relatively nearby resort of Antalya, Turkey, their top choice.
There are also certain winter travel trends according to TUI. Spain remains the leader for the winter 2018 travel. It is followed by Egypt that has become significantly more popular this year. Thailand is the third most popular destination. Most Europeans prefer to visit warmer destinations for their Christmas travel, with Germans and the Dutch being the only exception. They like Austria. Germans also like domestic travel only Spain and Egypt are more popular. When it comes to trendy destinations, the Cape Verde Islands are still on top. This Atlantic archipelago is in the fourth place, and that is definitely an impressive result. Finally, Mexico became a top-five choice for travelers from Nordic countries and the United Kingdom.