Abta data published on Friday (25 August) shows that beach destinations such as mainland Spain, the Balearics and the Canary Islands remain people’s favourites while the popularity of Bulgaria and Turkey continues to rise.

It comes as figures from aviation firm Cirium show that Friday is set to be the busiest day for UK air travel in almost four years, with more than 3,130 flights scheduled to depart from British airports.

“We’ve seen consistently high demand for foreign holidays this year, with many of our travel agent and tour operator members even reporting record-breaking sales,” said Abta director of communications Graeme Buck. 

“The pandemic paused lots of holiday plans over the last few years, so it’s clear that people see getting away this year as an absolute priority and some are even prepared to dip into their pandemic savings pots to make this happen.

According to Abta, Brits are using a range of tactics to stretch their holiday budgets, from going on holiday outside of the peak period and cutting down on other spending to booking last-minute and dipping into their savings.