Winter sun divides the north and south

As the winter is taking hold of our shores there is a big North-South divide emerging across the UK. According to Co-operative Travel there are is a stark difference in holiday booking in the north compared to those in the south. They say that there is a significant increase on year-on-year figures for the north of the UK.

They based their finding on 180,000 winter sun booking that were made this year and found that Doncaster Airport had a rise in bookings of 46 per cent compared to 2008, Liverpool was close behind on 41 per cent, followed by Leeds Bradford who’s figures had rose 28 per cent and Scotland’s Edinburgh Airport had a marked increase of 27 per cent.

Compare this with the south of the UK and only Luton and Heathrow airports showed any signs of a rise in passenger traffic, five and 11 per cent respectively. It could be down to colder northerners wanting some sunshine before the year is out as the UK has not had the best year for weather.

Well if they are off anytime soon it could not have happened at a better time as the UK is bracing itself for arctic conditions as predicted by the Met Office. This could of course turn out not be true after a similar prediction by them earlier this year said we were in for a ‘barbecue summer’, which never really arrived.

Whatever the reason for winter sun it looks like we are choosing wisely and avoiding countries within the eurozone. Turkey, Egypt and Tunisia are the hot favorites this year with up to a 30 per cent increase in tourist numbers expected over the winter season.