Homeworking group Not Just Travel says the travel industry has ‘stalled’, with the majority of British families yet to book their summer holiday.
Co-founder Steve Witt said the group, which has 720 homeworkers, had a strong first quarter but the industry went into a ‘lull’ in April.
He said the late Easter combined with sunshine in the UK, market uncertainty and ‘major travel sales events’ such as the early launch of P&O Cruises’ 2027 programme had delayed families booking for summer ’25.
“Easter falling later in the month meant school holidays did also – and that always has an effect on trading. However, now that school holidays fall differently in parts of the country, we’ve seen them spanning a longer period,” said Steve.
“A combination of additional factors, including unusually good British weather, market uncertainty driven by Trump tariffs, and major travel sales events like the launch of P&O voyages two years in advance — which traditionally triggers a surge in bookings — has led many households, particularly families, to delay booking their summer holidays.”
However, he said both agents and suppliers remained confident of a late travel boom. He said cruise and long-haul bookings remained strong.
NJT’s cruise business has been up ‘considerably’ in the past seven days, representing 30% of bookings and 25% of sales value, said Steve.
Long-haul sales are up about 20%, he added, with an average booking value in April up £359 to £4,435.
Hays Travel Chair Dame Irene Hays announced in late March that an unusually high percentage of families – more than 70% – had still to book their summer holiday.
In a trading update this week, Jet2 said customers were continuing to book late, leaving it with 18.4 million seats left to sell this summer, 8.3% more than last year.
Alistair Rowland of Blue Bay Travel described March and most of April as ‘soft’ with evidence that customers at the higher end of the market trading down from longhaul to midhaul – but he said bookings started to return to normal last week, suggesting customers are waiting later to book.
He added: “People are still spooked, and on average 10% worse off on their savings, but it feels more ‘normal’ now than it has over the last four to six weeks.”
David Gregg of Different Corners travel agency in Torquay said he’s seeing a different picture. “We’ve had one of the busiest months since January, better than February and March and average spend is right up, lots of long-haul tailormade stuff, which is good.”
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