Mini-breaks are now more popular than a fortnight’s holiday

A FORTNIGHT used to be the staple family summer holiday. But the traditional two-week break is in decline as holidaymakers opt for 10-day trips and travel further afield, figures show.

Younger travellers make the most of their holiday allowance by taking lots of small trips throughout the year, and short holidays are now more common as travellers take advantage of cheap flights and more flexible package trips.

While 14-day holidays abroad have fallen from 5.27million to 3.76million, the number of 10-day breaks increased from 629,241 in 1996 to 2.4million in 2016. Rachel O’reilly, of travel firm Kuoni, said that direct flights to destinations such as Las Vegas and Dubai meant holidaymakers were going there for as little as five days.

“People’s confidence in travel has grown in a generation,” she said. “It’s about people being smarter with the 24 or 25 days of holiday they have. There are more weekend breaks. People even do ‘mini-moons’ – where they take one short honeymoon in somewhere like Italy right after they marry, and a longer trip further afield later in the year.”