Kuoni has unveiled its top 10 best-selling destinations this Peaks, and is reporting sales up 14% on the same time last year.
The operator said customers are seeking out long-haul winter sun, family adventures and multi-centres, generating one of the best January and early February sales periods since 2019.
The Maldives is number one on Kuoni’s best-sellers list, with Thailand, Mauritius, Sri Lanka, Bali, Antigua, Vietnam, Malaysia, the US and South Africa respectively all in the top 10.
Other trending destinations for the year ahead include India, Tanzania, Australia and the Seychelles, which are all seeing a rise in bookings since last year.
Managing Director Mark Duguid said: “We’ve had a terrific start to the year with a real breadth of destinations around the world selling well, it’s clear that long-haul is really winning out right now for lots of different reasons.
“People are feeling confident and optimistic about making travel plans for the year ahead and making it a priority. There’s a taste for experience-led trips building in exploration, food and wellbeing which is also driving demand, whilst family travel is on the up. Overall family travel is up 40% from last year and proving popular in both short and long-haul destinations.”
He added value is a ‘common theme’, with Vietnam a good example of experience and adventure travel at affordable prices.
Multi-centre trips with more complex itineraries are moving up the best sellers list, and Kuoni is noticing an upturn in two and three centres, with Sri Lanka and Thailand being the most popular for 2025.
Multi-island holidays in the Caribbean are up 7% on last year and there is a trend for combining the more popular all-inclusive islands with smaller, lesser developed islands such as Grenada or Dominica. Kuoni added Jamaica and Dominican Republic into its collection last year.
Kuoni said customers are also coming with a ‘blank sheet of paper’, asking for wildlife experiences, cookery classes, wellbeing breaks and other ‘bucket-list’ trips, and are open minded about where they go.
Mark added: “People don’t need to wait for the special occasion as an excuse to travel any more, people are making up their own definition of ‘special’.
“It used to be big zero birthdays, honeymoons and anniversaries but now it could be anything, teenagers passing exams, couples rekindling a sense of adventure or two friends travelling together to switch off with a pile of books, people are defining their own sense of what makes life special, and travel is something they want to invest in.”
