Expectant couples, grandparents and unmarried partners taking the equivalent of a honeymoon are changing the shape of overseas travel.
The three tourists types emerged in a holiday trends survey which found that package holidays are no longer the preserve of families and couples.
"Babymooners" is the name in the survey for couples expecting their first child who want a last holiday as a couple before parenting kicks in, according to the travel firm Thomas Cook. Typically, they will have travelled extensively and miss the days when they could tour the globe with only a backpack and guide book.
Short breaks in the sun are increasingly being booked by couples who have forgone marriage but see no reason to deny themselves the fun of a honeymoon. These "phoneymooners" typically go to places such as the Maldives, Mexico or Sri Lanka, on a romantic trip of a lifetime with an exotic backdrop more usually associated with post-nuptial celebrations.
Thomas Cook also reported bookings from older people with their grandchildren leaving the mums and dads at home to enjoy time without the kids.
This group was one of the most lucrative, as they have typically paid off their mortgages, leaving more money to spend on holidays, and they tended to travel during school holidays, when the cost of a trip abroad goes up, Thomas Cook said.
The report, published yesterday, also says that tourists are more likely to be influenced in their choice of holiday by weather and television programmes than by terrorism.
It drew on a recent survey by Mintel which showed that 67% of British adults would not be deterred from visiting a country because it had suffered a terrorist attack and that 49% said that fear of terrorism was less of a factor in holiday planning than five years ago.
Cook found that the weather in Britain was a major factor in determining whether people go abroad or stay at home. It blamed the tough year for the tourism industry in 2006 partly on the UK's blazing summer.
Holiday choices are increasingly being made in front of the TV rather than with a travel brochure, the report found. Programmes such as Big Cat Diary on BBC1 had led to a rush of bookings for African safari holidays while BBC2's Egyptian Journeys meant more holidays in Egypt.
Source: The Herald
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