Spain still UK's top holiday destination

The 2012 Travel Trends Report from Skyscanner, one of Europe’s leading travel search sites, confirms that Spain is still the top destination for British holidaymakers – as well as for French, German, Swedish and Spanish travellers – not only heading the list of country searches, but also leading the way with four of the top five city and resort searches with Málaga and the Costa del Sol coming first for the second consecutive year, ahead of Alicante, Tenerife and Palma de Mallorca.

Well worth a read, the report additionally highlights the fact that in 2011 Spain also topped the Post Office Holiday Costs Barometer, showing overall how much money 10 key items in 14 different holiday resorts would set you back. With prices pegged at 2010 levels, Spain came out on top as Europe’s best-value destination.

As a spokesman for the Spanish Tourist Board in London explains, “Despite economic challenges and a shrinking outbound market, UK visitors to Spain are up 8.8% on the comparable period in 2010. Since the first flight-inclusive package holiday to the Costa del Sol in the early 60s, there has been a long history of British families taking their holidays in Spain…

“Spain’s culturally and geographically diverse landscape still has areas just beginning to welcome tourism, while other more mature areas are now differentiating and updating to compete with the global travel market. This wide and varied holiday offering gives visitors endless appeal and this is what keeps generations returning to all corners of Spain.”

For its own part, Skyscanner concludes that the number of package holidays available from the UK, a large British expat community of more than a million and in-resort holiday costs remaining low for the fourth consecutive year should all ensure Spain’s pole position for a number of years to come.