Sojern Data Points: Predicting the trends in the lead-up to and during Christmas, New Year’s and early January

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The holiday period is defined as 1st December until Early January 2016. Tracking activity using intent data can provide insights into upcoming travel trends which marketers can action to influence traveller behaviour.

Spain is Favourite Destination All Year Round for UK Travellers
Spain is the UK’s favourite destination throughout the year and Christmas time is no exception. The United States comes in second and domestic UK trips are in third place for the majority of the time period considered here. Destinations outside of Europe and North America, such as Australia and Thailand, climb in the rankings as we look at departure dates further in the future as people tend to search and book long haul trips earlier than shorter trips. Australia and Thailand are in fourth and fifth position for trips in early January 2016. Western Europe is naturally the top destination region for UK travellers. Eastern Europe’s share is the largest for the Christmas time frame, while more faraway destinations such as North America, Southeast Asia and Oceania reach their peak shares in January. This is likely due to travellers booking these long distance destinations further in advance.

New York City Still Top City for Christmas
While Spain is still the undisputed top country for UK travellers over this Christmas period, overall New York City is the most popular city followed by Amsterdam and Bangkok. Amsterdam is the most popular city early in December (1st-14th) followed by New York City and then London. As we look further out, Bangkok takes the top position for trips planned for early January.

19th December Most Popular Departure Date
As you would expect, the majority of UK travellers are flying from London (68%) with Manchester (11%) coming in second followed by Birmingham (5%). UK travellers are choosing to fly out on the Friday and Saturday before Christmas (18th & 19th December) with the 19th being the most popular departure date. During those peak days we see an increase of 75% of travel interest compared to the first two weekends of December. While travel volumes during Christmas are higher than in the first half of December, there is a sharp drop on 25th December, Christmas Day, as people opt to celebrate with family and friends rather than travel.

Holiday Season Favours Longer Trips
During Christmas, travellers tend to take longer trips with 51% of all trips for a duration of 12 days or more. Trips planned over New Year’s tend to be shorter with 44% planned for 4-7 days. As people tend to search for trips based on one person travelling we often see large volumes of search data based on single travellers and Christmas time is no exception. The largest share of trips planned for two travellers is for New Year’s and early January. Christmas (15th-25th December) sees the largest share of planned travel for groups of three or more travellers. UK travellers seem to be more organised when it comes to planning their Christmas and New Year’s trips and 42% of trips are researched and booked well in advance with departure dates of 60 days or more in advance. Early January seems to show a trend of last minute bookers with 44% of trips with a departure date of 0-29 days.

Amsterdam Top Destination for New Year’s Eve
UK travellers are heading to Amsterdam this year to celebrate New Year’s Eve. New York City is the second most popular destination followed by Bangkok. New York City is the most popular destination for travellers from London with Dubai coming in fourth place. For those UK travellers opting to stay within the UK, Edinburgh is the top New Year’s Eve destination for London travellers. The most popular departure date for New Year’s Eve trips for both UK travellers (21%) and London travellers (22%) is the 26th December.