Record festive holiday bookings

Bored of TV repeats and making small talk with the relatives, a record number of Brits have used the festive period to book a holiday - says leading online travel and leisure giant lastminute.com.

Traffic and bookings for the seven days starting on Christmas Day (25 – 31 December) were up a massive 24% and 18% respectively, compared to the corresponding period in 2006.

Christmas Day bookings continue to increase as people turn off the Queen’s Speech and jump online to plan their getaway.

Christmas Day 2006 recorded 20% more bookings than the previous year, with bookings on Christmas Day 2007 up a further 15% on 2006’s figures.

The trend continued throughout the week with Boxing Day’s bookings up by 25% as people had already put the festivities behind them and turned their attentions to 2008 holiday plans.

New Year’s Eve experienced the next bookings high with a massive 45% increase.

Bookings to winter sun destinations such as Egypt, Cape Verde and the Canaries are proving most popular.