Consumer confidence in overseas travel has increased following the festive period, according to homeworking agency Not Just Travel.
The firm reported a 50% increase in post-Christmas sales compared to the same time last year, with around 43% of bookings for travel in the next 12 weeks.
Not Just Travel co-founder Steve Witt said pre-Christmas sales were down due to the uncertainty surrounding the Omicron variant, but as the booster jab rollout progressed, confidence returned.
Witt also claimed the traditional model of peak sales has changed and predicted there won’t be a "big extreme" peak in January.
"Demand will be high, but will remain high and not dip like it normally does," he said.
"It’s going to be more like South Africa’s Table Mountain rather than a steep peak and drop-off. 2022 peaks will be elongated but we’ll see a big surge again for last-minute bookings too."
Not Just Travel’s Lapland Christmas trips for 2022 have reportedly almost sold-out following the increase in demand, with cruise sales seeing a reported four-fold increase against the same time last year.
"Cruise will be big in 2022, fuelled by the plethora of ’seacations’ which happened in 2021," Witt said.
"Many people first experienced the luxurious facilities of cruise ships in 2021 and liked what they saw. They now want to travel abroad as they’ve also realised cruising health and safety standards are very high."
Not Just Travel has also seen more experience-led holidays being booked as consumers "want to try and experience new things to escape their homeland".
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