Bookings for travel in the next 12 weeks have continued to rise and last week represented 40% of Advantage sales, the consortium said on Thursday (6 July).
Chief executive Julia Lo Bue-Said said the latest figures continued to signal a busy summer. "Across our travel agent partners, we are seeing summer bookings greatly outperform recent years," said Lo Bue-Said.
"Sales for summer 2023 are looking to significantly outperform last summer with sales currently at 98% of 2022 bookings despite it only being the beginning of the season."
Top summer destinations include Spain, led by sales for the Canaries, and then Greece, with an even split in demand for Greece’s main islands and Turkey.
The US remains in the overall fourth spot, but Lo Bue-Said said the destination’s performance had not been as strong as previous years due to challenging exchange rates.
Bookings for Italy, meanwhile, have been "especially" strong this year, ensuring it remains the consortium’s fifth most popular destination.
"There is undeniably a huge appetite for travel this year and the boost in bookings suggests that people are continuing to prioritise travel despite the cost-of-living crisis," Lo Bue-Said continued.
"However, travellers are looking to manage costs when it comes to booking holidays which is evident in the higher percentage of all-inclusive bookings our travel agent partners are seeing."
More than a third (37%) of Advantage bookings are on an all-inclusive basis, up from 13% in 2022, with the group also charting an increase in bookings on a half-board basis from 7% in 2022 to 17% in 2023 – both seemingly aligning with a trends towards more cost-conscious holiday purchasing choices this summer.
