The survey of 191 travel consultants for the week ending 24 April found a total of 42% of respondents made a sale in the past week, compared with only 29% in the previous survey. New enquiries were reported by 63% of agents, a rise of around 10 percentage points over last week.

However, on the downside, 58% of respondents said they had made no sales in the past week.

Europe accounted for nearly half of all enquiries, with North America the next most popular at 19%. Beach holidays were the most popular holiday type, with 40% asking about these, but perhaps surprisingly, 19% named cruise holidays as the next most popular choice.

There is evidence that consumers are not afraid to spend, with the highest proportion of new bookers (36%) being those of £1,000-plus. Just less than 4% of sales were for this summer, with winter and spring 2021 packages accounting for 24% of sales. The biggest seller is summer 2021, at 33% of the total.

Nearly half of agents were using social media to keep in contact with clients, but 22% were phoning customers, the survey found.