Last-minute summer holiday bookings rise as Brits flee rain

School holidays are successful afloat plaything but it tin beryllium hard to judge this is highest summertime for anyone who finds themselves connected a UK beach.

Record rainfall has struck the UK, starring to a emergence successful last-minute vacation booking, question agencies report.

One of these last-minute bookers is Eastbourne hairdresser Kate Lodge, who said she volition "pay whatever" for a vacation abroad.

She conscionable wants to person a vacation wherever she and her lad tin get immoderate sun.

Kate said galore of her customers stock her concerns.

"You can't truly get inexpensive past infinitesimal holidays immoderate more," she said.

"But I don't privation to publication clip disconnected for my vacation and for it to beryllium raining each week. I'm wearing wintertime apparel and it's August. I don't caput what it takes, I'll beryllium getting connected the plane."

Lucy Hancock, a lawsuit astatine the salon, said she did the aforesaid successful July, taking a last-minute travel to Italy.

"The upwind was looking beauteous iffy that week. My girl was disconnected school, truthful alternatively than her conscionable lying astir being connected her telephone each time we decided to bash a speedy five-day trip," she said.

As Lucy gets her hairsbreadth done, she explains she would ne'er person considered having a UK summertime vacation this July. Covid prevented her from going distant successful the erstwhile years, and this twelvemonth the upwind was excessively temperamental.

For immoderate people, travelling present whitethorn beryllium retired of the question. The cost-of-living situation has deed families hard, and bundle holidays are much costly this twelvemonth than ever. Firefighters are battling to power wildfires successful Portugal, aft fires successful Greece ruined galore people's holidays successful July. Concern implicit clime alteration has besides raised questions implicit however often we should fly.

Julia Lo Bue-Said runs Advantage Travel Partnership, a web of autarkic question agents who assertion to correspond astir 20% of question agents. She told the BBC 18% of bookings wrong the past period person been for question successful August, a overmuch higher proportionality than the 4% she would usually expect.

The extremity of question restrictions pursuing the pandemic means this twelvemonth bookings are higher than past year. But the BBC spoke to 11 large question agencies, and astir said they person besides noticed a highest successful last-minute bookings specifically during the rainy summertime months.

OnTheBeach told the BBC that less radical had booked holidays during June erstwhile the UK was enjoying a mini-heatwave. "But arsenic soon arsenic we experienced a bedewed July, bookings increased," the relation said.

A spokesperson for Jet2 said the upwind led their customers to go much flexible implicit their vacation destination. "More radical are simply looking to get distant this summertime and swap the UK upwind for immoderate sunshine, careless of the destination," they said.

Trevor Ridler, determination manager for Fred Olsen Travel Agent successful Eastbourne, said helium had seen last-minute bookings emergence 25% compared to pre-pandemic levels, contempt cost-of-living pressures.

"People are inactive wanting that vacation and they are consenting to marque sacrifices to get that.

"For galore clients, the vacation is the astir important thing. Maybe implicit that spot of decorating."

Additional reporting by Katy Austin and Hope Bolger.