Sunshine Saturday!

Struggling firms cut holiday prices by a third after last year’s heatwave

HOLIDAY deals have been cut by more than a third today as millions shop for a summer getaway on ‘Sunshine Saturday’.

Many Britons stayed at home to enjoy last year’s scorching heatwave – leading desperate travel companies to slash package prices by up to 60 per cent.

And now prices are up to 36 per cent cheaper than this time last year as firms aim to get travellers booked in before another sizzling summer.

Today is dubbed ‘Sunshine Saturday’ because it is the busiest day of the year for travel firms, as freezing temperatures hit Britain and custom doubles in the wake of Christmas.

Money Mail has found significant discounts are going on packages in Spain and Portugal, with a week in Crete costing as little as £106 per head.

Travel companies are also expecting Britons to want to ‘lock in’ all-inclusive deals due to uncertainty over Brexit and its impact on exchange rates.

Emma Coulthurst, of comparison site Travel Supermarket, said: ‘It could be the best Sunshine Saturday yet.

‘After last year’s prolonged heatwave, tour operators will not want to be left with lots of stock in the summer so are appealing to those late deal hunters to snap up these bargains early.

‘These holidays have been priced to ensure they are within as many people’s reach as possible. The prices are to appeal to those people who holidayed at home last summer and may have spent more than they expected to. The outbound travel industry will also be hoping for a cooler summer this year.’

She added: ‘People dread the return to work and their thoughts turn to booking holidays so they have something to look forward to through the dark winter months. We expect the number of searches on our site will continue to rise for the next couple of weeks.’

Thomas Cook said today would likely be its busiest day online and in stores with more than double the bookings on a normal weekend.

The firm has already seen allinclusive bookings for this winter rise 11 per cent compared with this time last year.

Phil Gardner, its sales and ecommerce director, said: ‘With

‘Travel’s busiest day of the year’

Christmas all wrapped up this is traditionally the weekend the nation turns its attention to its next holiday.

‘With a cold snap apparently on the way, we expect getting a sunshine break in the diary will feature on the weekend to-do list along with taking the tree down. Uncertainty about exchange rates is sure to be on holidaymakers’ minds more than ever this year so we think all-inclusive packages will prove popular as customers take advantage of being able to “lock in” costs for food and drink at the time of booking.’

He said Turkey was proving a popular destination, with bookings up 57 per cent on last year, as the lira was ‘relatively weak’.

The firm said online flight bookings to San Francisco were up 61 per cent, trips to New York up 27 per cent, Goa in India up 28 per cent, and Cancun in Mexico up 44 per cent.

Thomas Cook’s share price plunged in November after the firm issued a profit warning.

It unveiled a loss after tax of £163million, blaming extra costs and the effect of the heatwave on holiday bookings.

Reigo Eljas, from travel firm lastminute.com, added: ‘Most airlines and hotels offer deep discounts to attract consumers to book their spring/summer breaks in January, and this is no different this year, meaning you will be able to bag some excellent bargains and get your spring/summer break sorted.’

Thousands of passengers have vowed to boycott Ryanair after naming it the worst airline for the sixth consecutive year.

In Which? Travel’s annual survey on short-haul firms, Ryanair received a ‘dismal’ customer score of 40 per cent.

Which? said the airline’s reputation had declined so much that thousands of the poll’s 12,500 respondents said they would never fly with it again.