Holiday firms reporting surge in demand for long-haul breaks

Holiday companies are reporting a surge in demand for long-haul breaks amid claims that the likes of Thailand and Vietnam are now often “more cost-effective” than visiting traditional European favourites.

On Tuesday, the travel brand Kuoni said long-haul bookings for the year ahead were 14% higher than at the same point in 2024.

Meanwhile, the online package holiday company Thomas Cook reported a 10% year-on-year increase in long-haul bookings.

Kuoni said it was seeing a particular interest in “experience-led trips” that included things such as wildlife encounters, cookery classes and a focus on wellbeing.

Among the firm’s most popular long-haul destinations were the Maldives, Thailand, Antigua, Vietnam and South Africa.

Kuoni UK’s managing director, Mark Duguid, said the brand had enjoyed a “terrific” start to the year “with a real breadth of destinations around the world selling well”. He added: “It’s clear that long-haul is really winning out right now, for lots of different reasons.”

However, long-haul flights have long been criticised for their significant environmental impact relating to the amount of carbon emissions they generate.

Value for money came through as a common theme for the current popularity, and Vietnam was highlighted as “a good example of somewhere which is leading the way with experience and adventure travel”, with its cities, food, culture and beaches combining to create special trips “at affordable prices”.

Thomas Cook said one of the big ‘winners’ was the US, especially destinations like New York. Photograph: Gary Hershorn/Getty Images

At Thomas Cook, a spokesperson said that when it came to the summer months in particular, the price of breaks in faraway locations was often “comparable to holidays in the Med, so people are willing to head farther afield and try somewhere new with their holiday spend”.

This renewed enthusiasm for travelling farther afield may also be linked to tax changes on pensions announced in last October’s budget, which led to predictions that some older people were likely to withdraw more of their pension cash and spend it on holidays and other big-ticket items in order to reduce the value of their estate.

Thomas Cook said one of the big “winners” was the US, especially New York, Florida and Las Vegas. At the time of writing, the firm was selling seven-night packages to Las Vegas including return flights from London for under £550 a person.

The spokesperson added: “Mauritius and Thailand offer great value, especially for families who want to explore a new country.”

Tourists watch jumping whales near Hermanus, South Africa. The country has become one of Kuoni’s most popular long-haul destinations.
Photograph: Jeannot Olivet/Getty Images/iStockphoto

Julia Lo Bue-Said, the chief executive of Advantage Travel Partnership, a network of independent travel agents, said so far this year it had seen strong momentum in long-haul travel across its agency partners, with demand accelerating in the last few weeks.

“Many families are discovering that long-haul destinations can be more cost-effective during school holidays than European alternatives, particularly in regions like Thailand and the far east, where local costs remain attractive,” she said.

The popularity of shows such as The White Lotus, whose current third season is set in Thailand, and ITV’s Love Island All Stars, filmed in South Africa, would fuel fresh interest in these destinations for 2025 holidays, she added.

It was announced in last October’s budget that unspent money left in a pension plan after an individual’s death will be included in inheritance tax calculations from April 2027. That led to claims in some quarters that this “tax grab” could backfire, with Ros Altmann, a former pensions minister, quoted as saying that the policy created a “huge incentive” to spend money rather than save it.