This is the time of the year when the new holiday brochures are being prepared to be sent out to shops so, that come the days after Christmas, we can pick and choose where we want to go. In truth that has changed quite a bit and some destinations and tour operators were taken aback by how late some of us booked this year. In some cases panic was almost about to set in at some places because they thought they would never be able to sell these holidays. Next year, they are assuming that a lot of us will book as late as we did this year.

Another feature that seems to have come out of holidays this year is that we are holidaying for shorter periods. Traditionally, the main summer holiday has been 7 or 14 days. Then shortbreaks or long weekends came in with people going away from anything from 2-4 days. When cruises started to become popular, the length was 5, 7 or 10 days. The bulk of us still took 7 or 14 days but that maybe about to change.

Thomson and First Choice Holidays are forecasting that the interest in 14 day holiday will decline and the 10 or 11 day holiday will become more popular. This year demand for this length of holiday was up by 64% but to be fair that was from fairly small number. But if the biggest holiday in Britain says this is looking to be a trend then they ought to know.

The other trend that they think will grow will be the demand for all inclusive holidays. At present just over 40% of the holidays that they sell are this type. It’s not hard to see why. You know what your costs will be so it is easier to be able to budget and not have too many nasty surprises at the end of the holidays.