According to a report from Insuremore, the effects of a strong pound are being felt in the European travel market. Over the last twelve months, according to the news, the average price of family holidays in Europe have plummeted.
Balos Lagoon on Crete – courtesy Enrico Donelli
While some destinations remain expensive for family getaways, places like Crete and Bulgaria, for instance, have become real bargains. According to this report, those destinations actually come in at one third cheaper than stay-at-home UK destinations. Sunny Beach, in Bulgaria, Crete, Marmaris in Turkey, and standby Costa del Sol in Spain offer special value.
To cement this idea, this Easier Travel report tells of travel search engines having shown UK tourists on a strict budget should book package holidays to the Portuguese Algarve (£458) or the idyllic island of Malta (£520). As for Crete and other east Europe wonders, Dubrovnik at £693, and Crete at £699, are super values. Kayak’s UK Director, Annie Wilson, suggested to Easier Travel:
“Booking holidays is becoming more fast paced and immediate, tourists generally research costs and availability during their lunch break or while travelling from A to B, so they would like to be able see the whole holiday with the full cost with one click.”
So travelers are looking for all inclusive deals, much like your typical travel agent might present. From our experience, the islands of the Aegean, in particular, have relied largely on tour groups taking advantage of cut rates for some time. So, the news reflects that cost savings are in fact, still a huge motivational factor for UK travelers.
Hotel Maravel in Rethymno
Insuremore created the report to show these values, plus the impact on buying travel insurance while abroad. To find out more about their company, please visit their website here. As for deals, there are myriad portals out there to snatch fantastic packages from. We’ll do a special report on those later, but one we randomly found is Jet2Holidays where I found a family week for under £490 pounds per person at the Rethymno Maravel Resort Hotel (pictured above).