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1 in 5 Brits plan to book a holiday in January

9th December 2014 Print

One in five Brits say that they plan to banish the post-Christmas and January blues by booking a holiday in January.

New research conducted on behalf of mortgage and loan provider Ocean Finance found that more than a fifth (22%) of respondents are planning to use January to organise a break. Almost half (47%) of these New Year holiday-planners revealed that they are savvy shoppers, as they said the motivation for booking their holiday at the start of the year was to get the best deal.

The other respondents planning to book a holiday in January said that they were doing so to give themselves something to look forward to after Christmas. Once the festive period is over and people struggle to keep their New Year’s resolutions, it’s easy to start to feel a bit down about the year ahead. Planning a get-away to somewhere warm and sunny could certainly boost some people’s spirits and help them through the cold and dark days ahead.

People aged 25-34 are the most likely to say they will make a holiday booking in January, with 36% planning to do so. In contrast, just 16% of people aged over 55 said they plan to make a booking at the start of next year.

However, not everyone is lucky enough to be planning a holiday. Two in five (40%) said they would wait until later in the year before booking. And it seems that Christmas spending could have hit some people hard, as nearly the same number (38%) said that they wouldn’t be having a holiday in 2015, with this rising to 44% among people aged over 55.

Ian Williams, spokesman for Ocean, says: “Despite Christmas being the most expensive time of year for many of us, January is still a very popular time to splash more cash by booking a holiday. With the prospect of a long cold winter ahead, it seems that many of us really do need to plan something to look forward to.

“For many people, booking a holiday in January will mean putting the deposit on their credit card – but it also makes sense to start trying to put some money aside each month to pay the balance when it becomes due.”