The number of holiday bookings with travel companies has been increasing since Christmas, but not as fast as normal. This is partly due to the changing travel rules at destinations and the associated uncertainty for holidaymakers, Corendon, TUI, Sunweb and the lessor of holiday homes Belvilla report after a call. People also continue to book their holiday until shortly before departure.

“People are really waiting to book”, says a spokeswoman for TUI, but bookings are increasing “significantly” compared to previous weeks. Most of the bookings are for January and February. In addition to the standard snow destinations such as Austria and Finland, people also like to go to the sun, such as the Antilles, the Canary Islands and Cape Verde. According to the tour operator, there are also "a lot more last minute bookings" than usual. Despite a sharp increase, summer bookings are still behind on previous years, according to the spokeswoman.

Short-term bookings are going well at Corendon for the time being, but for the summer they are still "strongly behind", says the travel organization. The summer bookings do fluctuate per day, according to the organization. Normally, people decide around the holidays where they go for the summer. “We have also seen that increase this year, but less strongly. Many people are delaying a decision until there is more clarity about the further course of the pandemic.” Corendon expects that the number of summer bookings will "come pretty close" to the pre-corona years, although people will book less long before departure.

According to Belvilla, the number of bookings is currently slightly higher than the same period last year and the home country is the most popular, followed by Belgium and Austria. Summer bookings are "slightly higher for now" than in 2021, and for July and August "bookings abroad are noticeably more".

Sunweb notices that holidaymakers are pushing winter bookings forward. “Consumers are now also booking for February and March, but last minute remains popular,” said the tour operator. The number of summer bookings for Sunweb doubled in the week after Christmas compared to the previous weeks. In the normal situation as it was before the corona pandemic, the increase was comparable. People go on holiday within Europe rather than outside it. Last minute bookings in particular remain popular, according to the tour operator.

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