The relaxation of the UK’s international travel rules helped to fuel a 66% rise in bookings for Pure Luxury during September compared with sales in August.

This boost in bookings was driven by the key luxury destinations of Dubai, Barbados, Mauritius and the Maldives, which helped to make the final week of September the best trading period for Gold Medal since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic in spring 2020.

Luxury clients also want to travel quickly with nearly half of these bookings (46%) being for departures before the end of 2021.

The operator now wants to build on this momentum with the first Pure Luxury brochure since December 2019, which also includes Europe for the first time.

The standalone Europe programme features city destinations designed to complement Pure Luxury’s sister Cruise Plus brand. There are also new properties in the Canaries and Balearic islands, as well as Italy and Greece.

“It’s great that we’ve been able to put our new Pure Luxury brochure in the hands of agents just as we’re seeing a strong uptick in demand in luxury bookings,” said Lisa McAuley, Gold Medal’s managing director.

“It’s very exciting to see the growth in demand for longer and more luxurious holidays, proof positive of a trend we’ve seen growing for some time now suggesting holiday-hungry consumers are desperate to make their next holiday extra-special and don’t want to wait until next year, if possible.”

The new 224-page Pure Luxury brochure also includes new properties such as Yasawa Island Resort and Spa in Fiji, Niyama Private Islands in the Maldives, Dubai’s Address Beach Resort and Ritz-Carlton Sarasota in Florida.

Agents can view the new brochure on Gold Medal’s website while printed copies are due to arrive at agencies shortly.