A new study has revealed the most popular holiday destinations for British tourists, as well as where in the UK people are looking for a holiday the most.
Using Google Keyword Planner, travel platform for experiences Hellotickets has analysed 2,566 search combinations across 77 UK cities. A total of 213 holiday destinations were combined with 14 templates, including “[destination] holiday”, “last minute holiday to [destination]”, “short holiday in [destination]”, “winter holiday in [destination]”, and “summer holidays in [destination]”.
The total monthly average searches in each location were analysed and compared against its population, establishing the monthly average searches per 100,000 people.
Most surprisingly, Spain, which has been considered for years the most popular holiday destination among older Brits, ranks only tenth, with an average monthly volume of 14,308. It remains to be seen whether this is a consequence of the extensive mass-tourism protests that have occurred across Spain over the past few months, from Barcelona to the Canary Islands.
Some British tourists have vowed to never visit Spain again and many others have reportedly cancelled their holidays after being made to feel unwelcome.
One told GB News: “We’ve been going to Tenerife twice a year for many years, but never again – just booked two weeks in the Caribbean for February 2025. Hopefully they will appreciate us a little more.”
Claiming the next three spots were Croatia with an average monthly volume of 14,312, Morocco with 14,893 and Albania with 15,038 in rank nine, eight and seven respectively.
Egypt earned sixth place with 16,088, over a thousand more than Albania. Tourism is one of the leading sources of income, crucial to Egypt’s economy. At its peak in 2010, the sector employed around 12 percent of the Egyptian workforce and provided revenues of around £9.5 billion, according to the Fourteenth Meeting of the Committee of Statistics and Tourism Satellite Account.
The sector continues to grow beyond visits to Cairo and the Giza pyramids. A major new real estate development project on the country’s northern coast has been announced, named “South Med” with hopes for it to become the latest Mediterranean hotspot. The project is expected to attract investments worth EGP 1trillion – or £16.4billion – and generate sales of EGP 1.6trillion – £25.7billion.
Unsurprisingly, the next three places were taken by extremely popular tourist destinations of Thailand, Greece and the Maldives with average monthly volumes of 19,130, 19,673 and 23,935 respectively.
In 2024, Thailand is expected to hit 36.1 million travellers, while Greece is also on track for a record year for tourism despite having welcomed 32.7 million in 2023. The Maldives too had already welcomed over 907,000 tourists as of June 4.
Cape Verde, a group of islands off the coast of West Africa, is the second most popular holiday destination, according to the research, with 25,060 searches per month. Overall, the country is an affordable destination with plenty of budget-friendly options available. It has a pleasant climate for most of the year, with 350 days of sunshine and impressive mountain scenery. For tourists interested in cultural topics, the town of Cidade Velha on Santiago was declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 1997.
Turkey was named the UK’s favourite destination and received an average of 27,129 Google searches per month. At its height in 2019, Turkey attracted around 51 million foreign tourists. Tourism is largely focused on its variety of historical sites and on seaside resorts along its Aegean and Mediterranean coasts. Istanbul is one of the most important tourist spots not only in Turkey, but also in the world.
It is also known for being a budget-friendly travel destination compared to many other countries, however tourists have recently claimed that Turkey will be “empty” within years as, they said, everything has become expensive.
There are several reasons as to why Turkey may be so popular. Firstly, as Turkey is not currently a member of the European Union, it is not set to use the new Entry/Exit system (EES) which will come into effect from November 10. It has been reported that over one in five Brits would be put off from European holidays because of the new digital border system, according to research by Co-op Insurance.
Indeed, seven of the 10 countries listed in this research are not in the EU and will not use the EES system.
The top three UK cities looking for a holiday were Wakefield, with an average monthly keyword search of 4,383 and keyword searches per 100,00 people of 4,192, followed by Rochdale with 5,258 and 3,964 and Preston with 4,986 and 3,859 respectively.
Jorge Díaz Largo, CEO and Founder of Hellotickets, commented on the study’s findings: “For Brits wanting to keep their costs low, Turkey offers a relatively inexpensive holiday experience, from flights and accommodation to food and activities.
“Compared to the UK, a three-course meal for two in a mid-range restaurant in the Turkish capital costs almost a quarter of what it does in London.
“Cape Verde is also extremely popular due to its warm, sunny climate throughout the year, making it an attractive escape from the often chilly and wet UK weather.”