1.8 million Britons join Spring Bank Holiday exodus

The Spring Bank Holiday exodus will see an estimated 1.8 million Britons heading abroad over the weekend.

The bank holiday coincides with the school half term, so Friday and Saturday are likely to be busy at Britain’s airports and ports.

But while the number of people travelling by ferry is up on 2008, airports will be quieter as the number of travellers has plummeted over the same weekend last year.

Stansted airport anticipates 120,000 people will fly this weekend – a 20 per cent drop on last year’s figures.

Heathrow remains Britain’s busiest airport, with one per cent fewer departing passengers this weekend compared to last year, at 385,000. Gatwick is down eight per cent to 220,000 departing passengers and Luton is down 14 per cent to 60,000.

The most popular destination for holidaymakers looking to escape the varied weather forecast for the UK is Spain, which remains the UK’s most popular summer holiday spot according to the Association of British Travel Agents (Abta).

However, Egypt and Turkey are increasingly popular thanks to their position outside the euro zone, says Abta.

Foreign currency provider, Travelex, demand for Euros has been flat this year versus a 21.5 per cent increase for Turkish Lira and 25.9 per cent increase in demand for the Egyptian Pound.

The travel agency Travel Counsellors is reporting an increase in bookings to Egypt this year, but also Orlando and Dubai.

According to Abta, Florida is also very popular this year with British families cashing in on a bargain week in the sunshine.

The ferries are busier this year than last. According to Stena Line, crossings on the Harwich-Hook of Holland route are up 20 per cent up year-on-year.

A spokesman told Times Online that customers were saving money on European hotels, which are up to 30 per cent more expensive this year, by opting for an overnight crossing.

P&O Ferries says it has strong demand across its routes this weekend. A spokesman told Times Online: “People are switching long-haul travel for destinations on the doorstep. We've hit 134,000 passengers booked on our routes to the Continent over the weekend. Holland, Belgium, France and Spain are busy and all ahead of last year.”

As reported earlier this week, Spain and Portugal are losing out on holiday packages – down 20 per cent and 30 per cent respectively on bookings this year.

Travel agency and bedbank websites, which sell late-availability hotel rooms, are flooded with last-minute offers this weekend to Greece, mainland Spain, Portugal, the Canaries and the Algarve in particular.

Another destination with plenty of availability this weekend is the UK .Despite headlines heralding 2009 as the year of the domestic holiday, there is a glut of holiday cottages in the West Country available this weekend.

According to mapping website Multimap.com, more Britons have been searching for destinations in the Lake District this year, at the expense of the West Country – St Agnes in Cornwall, Christchurch in Dorset and Devon’s Blackpool Sands are among the 20 least searched destinations in the run up to the Bank Holiday.

Popular destinations in the UK this year are St Helier, Suffolk and Cambridge according to lastminute.com, which has seen a 10 per cent rise in domestic holiday bookings this year.

The most popular cities are London and Windsor according to the travel site, ahead of Paris, Barcelona and Rome.

In the UK camping and caravanning sites continue to post buoyant figures and are expected to be busier than ever this weekend. The national tourist board, VisitBritain, says trading has been strong this year for caravanning, camping and self-catering.

Park Holidays UK says bookings for its 25 parks in southern England are up by a quarter this weekend compared to last year, spurred on by heavy discounting, which has seen three-day breaks drop in price to £129.

Camping is also popular on the continent – even Ryanair now sells camping breaks on its website, to over 500 European destinations. It claims bookings were up 60 per cent last month.