Are Activity Holidays the Future? Holiday Discount Centre Investigates!

New research this week has revealed that more and more people are choosing activity holidays, rather than the traditional beach and pool break. Activities from yoga and meditation to trekking and water sports are said to be becoming more popular, with an increasing number of people aiming to look after their body whilst abroad.

But is this strictly true?

Here at Holiday Discount Centre, we wondered if people really are skipping the beach in favour of a fitness-related break. Steve Campion, Managing Director at HDC doesn’t seem to think so, although he admits people do seem to be looking for accommodation that offers some type of fitness facilities.

“Traditional beach breaks have always been a popular choice with HDC customers and I expect this to continue throughout spring and into summer. I also predict all inclusive holidays will continue to be a top seller this year as customers are always looking for value for money. Whilst we don’t see many customers looking for activity-based holidays, we are seeing an increase in customers wanting 4/5 star hotels featuring fitness and sports facilities.

“With a large amount of low cost airlines offering daily flights to some European destinations, I expect we will see more people trying to squeeze those extra holidays in, taking advantage of short breaks to popular beach resorts and city break destinations.”

With conflicting opinions on the most popular types of holiday in 2015, we thought we’d take a look at what the research is saying about different holiday types.

ACTIVITY HOLIDAYS

Research by Travelex has found that people are using their holiday to get fit with the number of Brits planning a fitness break doubling in the past year. The survey revealed that one in three people are looking to tone up on holiday, while almost 25% of people would like to lose weight during their time away from home. Similar research conducted by Health and Fitness Travel suggests that staying fit and healthy on holiday is an important factor for 82% of people. Yoga, meditation and dance classes are said to be some of the most common healthy holiday activities. It seems the boozy holiday has lost some of its popularity, as just one in 20 people asked claim they would be interested in going on a group drinking holiday.

CITY BREAKS

ABTA’s Travel Trends report 2015 has revealed that city breaks were the most popular type of holiday in 2014, with people choosing to travel to European destinations such as Paris, Rome and Prague. The report expects this trend to continue in 2015 as the research found that 43% of people are planning a city break this year. Holiday Discount Centre data tends to agree with this report, and predicts that Prague, Paris, Barcelona and Munich will continue to be top picks for city breaks in 2015.

BEACH / ALL-INCLUSIVE BREAKS

Research by ABTA has found that 42% of those asked are looking forward to going on a beach holiday this year, just 1% less than the number of people planning to book a city break. The ABTA report suggests some of the destinations to watch this year will be Austria, Botswana, Cuba and the Dominican Republic, however it seems destinations that are a bit closer to home will still be the most popular. HDC data for 2015 has found that Spain, Greece and Turkey will come out on top when it comes to beach breaks, while all inclusive holidays will still be the biggest seller.