Long-Haul Flights Cheaper Than Going Spain for UK Holidaymakers
By Sofia Quaglia
Long-haul destinations cost significantly less than Spain for the British holidaymaker, reports TravelSupermarket. The price comparison site found that, although British tourists make up the largest number of tourists in Spain, now spending two weeks in the Costa Del Sol could cost more than going all the way to the Middle East.
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TravelSupermarket calculated average costs for a family of four on a week-long holiday break in May. They found that flying to Abu Dhabi from Gatwick and staying in a four-star hotel costs £308 per person, and £310 if you’re travelling to Dubai instead. However, the same holiday in Tenerife costs £420 per person, and in Menorca up to £551. Replicating the case scenario in Florida would cost £371.
“Spain, France, and Italy are ‘easy’ destinations, they’re considered a ‘guarantee’ for UK travellers,” says travel expert Lucy Piers from Cox & Kings Travel. This comfort has lead such countries to a sort of oversaturation: “It gives them the green light to increase prices,” Lucy explains, “And it goes hand in hand with the fact that the middle-east might still be a bit ‘intimidating’ for some holidaymakers.”
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Indeed, on the one hand, Spanish holiday packages have sharply increased in price due to popularity of the destination. UK travellers started picking Spain over Turkey after the failed military coup, and over Tunisia after the Sousse terror attack. In fact, the number of British tourists visiting Spain has been growing steadily for the past decade, with a record-high 18 million people visiting in 2016. As a result, Spanish hoteliers put up their prices by 8%, according to the tour operator Thomas Cook.
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On the other hand, several factors have fuelled a price drop for holidays in exotic destinations. Abu Dhabi and Dubai have decreased their prices by 10% to attract more tourists. US holiday operators have cut prices by 35% in the past year, in the attempt to make up for the “Trump Slump”, the lack of interest in travelling to America after the 2016 presidential elections.
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Juan Martinez, the blogger behind Traveler’s Buddy, says studying these trends always gets you bargains. “When Malaysian Airlines crashed two planes in 2014, it dropped all of its prices dust-cheap because they were failing. I bought seats on every single route the airlines offered and travelled all of Asia for close to nothing,” he says.
Both for the May holidays and for summer holidays the tables may be turning when it comes to the cost of flying on a boeing like this one
Traveler's Buddy recently travelled to Murcia, Spain
Ph. Tomás Del Coro