Holiday firms are braced for a surge in summer bookings this weekend, with one predicting its busiest ever.
Demand for breaks abroad had already jumped in the wake of the Government lifting curbs for fully vaccinated travellers.
But holiday sales are expected to increase dramatically this weekend given it follows the first payday after Christmas for millions of workers.
Simon Cooper, chief executive of On the Beach, which launched in 2004, predicted it will be “the busiest we’ve ever been in our history”.
He said: “We expect it to be bumper with people who’ve been researching holidays all the way through the month jumping on and booking.”
The Greek islands, Turkey and Dubai are among the destinations selling strongly via the online giant.
Mr Cooper said bookings for Spain were “lagging behind where they should be” due to the requirement for all arrivals aged over 12 to be fully vaccinated.
Tui, Britain’s biggest tour operator, predicted its busiest weekend for bookings since the pandemic began.
Chief marketing officer Katie McAlister said renewed confidence is “releasing pent-up demand for sunshine holidays”.
She added: “Appetite to travel is stronger than ever.”
Helen Roberts, sales director at luxury travel company Kuoni, said sales had been “steadily building” recently, with the firm producing lots of quotes for “bucket list” holidays.
“The easing of testing combined with a January payday means lots of people will be ready to press the book button this weekend,” she said.
“Customers are ready to splash out and have a holiday of a lifetime to look forward to.
Budget airlines easyJet reported this week that bookings to beach destinations were in high demand, led by Greece and Turkey.
Johan Lundgren, easyJet’s chief executive, said: “We see a strong summer ahead.”
Over-50s holiday specialist Saga has also seen a strong pick-up in demand for its cruises.
Chief executive Euan Sutherland said: “While Omicron has impacted travel bookings through December and January, our outlook for cruises in 2022/2023 and beyond is positive.”
Prices in many European ski resorts popular with UK tourists have fallen, research reveals.
The overall cost of ski school, equipment hire, lift passes, meals and drinks are lower than last year in two-thirds of the resorts analysed by Post Office Travel Money.
The report was produced in partnership with Crystal Ski Holidays, which says demand has returned to pre-pandemic levels following the easing of travel restrictions, particularly by France.
The chief executive of the Port of Dover today warned of huge disruption to holidaymakers when new EU rules come into force in September.
British tourists could be hit by new biometric checks set to be required at the bloc’s border.
If the rules are enforced without a solution being found, tourist traffic at the crucial ferry port could grind to a halt, according to Doug Bannister.
He explained: “As it stands right now, nobody has got a process for a car load of people on a dark stormy night going through a ferry terminal.
“So if we had to follow the airport process in the ferry port, that would entail people exiting their vehicle in the middle of busy traffic lanes.
“That would be unsafe and we just couldn’t allow that to happen.”
