Travel Trends 2007

British travellers are becoming more discerning about their travel experiences and are starting to want more than just a couple of weeks on the beach every year.

Flight Centre’s head of marketing, Brent Novak says, “As more people continue to travel and the world ‘shrinks’, travellers are searching for experiences that are new, exciting and out of the ordinary.”

Flight Centre has put together its predictions for travel trends in 2007:

Cruising: Where in the world can you ice-skate around a sun-drenched Caribbean island? Go rock-climbing high above the rooftops of Venice? Or relax in a soothing spa in the middle of a tropical rainforest.

Cruising is the biggest growth area in the travel industry and is no longer considered a stuffy holiday. The growth in affordable cruises in the Mediterranean and Baltic regions has encouraged more people onboard and helped make cruising one of the biggest success stories in the UK holiday industry.

Many families are even taking advantage of the all-inclusive nature of a cruise holiday as the best way to see the world and have all the creature comforts available to them.

Community and Volunteer Travel: A growing trend of people want give something back to the country they are visiting and are choosing to experience the culture by immersing themselves in a local project.

This is especially popular among people in their 30s and 40s who either use their two week holiday volunteering or want to take career breaks. There are a number of companies who will help organise trips where travellers can get involved in projects such as building schools, constructing playgrounds for orphaned children to creating footbridge access to remote villages, or building a reservoir.

The projects revolve around the ethos of ‘doing’ as opposed to ‘seeing’, where a personal contribution of hands-on assistance is rewarded by rich interactive experiences with local peoples and environments.

Festival Followers: Everyone loves a party, and 2007 has a world of festivals and events that are filling up the calendar. Attending a festival gives travellers a unique insight into the country they’re visiting.

From the Running of the Bulls in Pamplona (July) to the Oktoberfest in Munich (September), the flamboyant Rio carnival (February) or even the Tomato Festival in Bunol (August), there’s a festival for everyone.

River cruising: River cruising appeals to travellers who are looking for a relaxing, hassle free way to explore Europe. It allows travellers to see life along Europe’s famous rivers discovering small villages and towns and visiting destinations that until now have been relatively unexplored like Hungary, Serbia, Romania and Bulgaria.

The range of river cruises has expanded and there are now itineraries visiting fascinating places such and Egypt, Russia, France and Portugal plus journeys along the Rhine and Danube Rivers.

Activity Based holidays: Want to learn how to cook a real Thai meal, paint a landscape in Provence or learn Italian in Italy? Then jump onboard this latest travel trend.

Holidays are meant to leave a lasting impression and an overflowing photo album, but come home with a new skill and you’ll be dining out on your stories for years to come. And who wouldn’t like to cook an authentic Thai/Indian/Moroccan meal?

Ski and Snowboard holidays: More people are regularly taking a winter ski holiday as well as their summer break than ever before. The development of resorts in places such as Slovenia, Bulgaria and Hungary and the good rate of exchange in USA and Canada, have made ski holidays much more affordable.

Skiing is not just about careering down a slope as fast as you possibly can; it’s about appreciating nature and the surrounding mountainscapes. Apart from actual skiing, most ski-lodges provide a variety of activities like snowboarding, bum boarding, cross-country trails (walks & hikes), ski-shooing, snow carting, ice-skating, tobogganing, quad biking and sleigh rides.

Skiing is an excellent activity for the whole family. Most ski lodges offer fabulous facilities for children, with special clubs that cater for the kids while the adults take to the slopes or enjoy Aprés Ski.

Private group and niche tours: Private group adventures and niche touring are continuing to build in popularity as they cater to a wide variety of groups with special interests, or for people who just want to travel with their friends.

The benefits of travelling in a private group are the itineraries are individually tailored to meet their needs. Whether it’s educational, leisure or a cultural experience, travellers will get to see and do what they want.

Visiting the paradores of Spain: The UK’s favourite holiday destination, Spain, has done much in recent years to promote the cultural and historical side of Spain that a growing number of people are turning their backs on sun, sea and sangria for a taste of the real Spain.

The paradores of Spain are a growing collection of 100 or so luxury hotels that have been built within castles, fortresses, convents, monasteries and other buildings of historical interest, in more unusual places such as Toledo, Segovia and Granada. Travellers looking to find the real Spain are increasingly seeking out these types of properties for a more authentic travel experience.

Adventure travel for families: A whole generation of people have grown up having travelled all their lives, from being taken abroad by their parents at a young age to taking gap years and career breaks in exotic locations.

There is growing trend for people with young families to still want to visit adventurous destinations with their children and there are a number of tour operators that have developed programmes to especially to cater for these people.

Children can be as enthusiastic about travel as their parents and what better way to bring history and culture alive than letting children experience these things first hand. Walking the Great Wall of China, staying with a Vietnamese family in the Mekong Delta or discovering turtles on the beaches of Costa Rica are now viable options for families.

The growth of the low cost carrier: Travelling to places you’ve never heard of for as little as £20 as a result of the growth of the low-cost carrier has encouraged thousands to nip off to Europe for the weekend. This has stimulated not just the short-break market, but also the growth in hen and stag weekends abroad and overseas property buying.

This trend looks set to continue and means that the average British person will take up to four holidays a year, made up of main summer holiday, a winter holiday and a couple of weekend breaks.

For further information, visit flightcentre.co.uk.