Tenerife has topped Cosmos Holidays sales chart with a 60% increase year-on-year, report traveldailyco.uk

Majorca, last year’s number one, is now fourth in the sales list with Florida and Turkey before it.

Other Canary Islands have seen bigger rises in sales, particularly Fuerteventura (250%), Gran Canaria (100%) and Lanzarote (40%).

Menorca

The Algarve, Menorca, Shaem el Sheikh, Zakynthos and Mexico are also within the top ten.

“Whilst early booking trends indicated that this summer was all about the Eastern Mediterranean, the improved strength of the Pound against the Euro has resulted in a last minute surge of bookings to destinations throughout the Western Mediterranean and the Canary Islands,” said Monarch Travel Group Tour Operations Managing Director Hugh Morgan.

“After the challenges of the past 12 months, confidence has clearly been restored in the market and it’s great to see holiday durations lengthening from last year’s seven and 10 night durations to the traditional 14 night breaks.”

From the Daily Mail recently:

It’s the excuse we all needed to indulge in that well-earned break - scientists say holidays can help us live longer.

A new study has linked travel with increased happiness and better health suggesting trips could even be prescribed in the future as a way to beat depression.

The Australian research identified how travel can affect three different elements of happiness, meaning the joy of a holiday extends well beyond those days spent lazing on the beach and could help prolong our lives.

Dr Sebastian Filep, an expert in travel and wellbeing at Victoria University, found that motivations for travel, experiences at the destination and the post-holiday reflection all contributed to the pleasure of a jaunt abroad.

The first caused positive emotions in the traveller, the second gave them a sense of purpose and the third a sense of involvement - all key ingredients of happiness.

The in-depth analysis was undertaken with 60 different travellers and a further 200 backpackers for a chapter in a forthcoming book, Tourists, Tourism and the Good Life.

The results conclude that travelling really does make people happier, which improves our health and helps us live longer.

The full process from booking and organising the break to remembering the trip and looking at holiday snaps helps people feel better about their lives.

‘I see an opportunity for a greater connection between tourism and health where holidays become a more important factor in leading a healthy lifestyle,’ said Dr Filep.

‘We know from studies in the US that experiencing positive emotions reduces the risk for cardiovascular disease, or that optimists live longer than pessimists.

‘So happiness is good for overall physical and mental health and holidays are a good vehicle for experiencing happiness.’

Dr Filep even went as far as to say that: ‘Holidays may possibly lead to people living longer, as holidays make people happy.’

Although he is not advocating prescribing trips over anti-depressants, he did think they could play a part in the treatment of depression.

‘I see holidays as part of the overall treatment for making people happy because we now have research evidence that demonstrates a clear link between holidays and happiness,’ he said.

‘Happiness is the opposite of depression. If thinking about a holiday, going on a holiday and remembering a holiday plays a role in making people happy, than I certainly think prescribing holidays or travel could help beat depression.’

For more details about Lanzarote holidays visit yourlanzarote.net - included is a Lanzarote map

Cheapflights Canada has compiled their top ten destinations for celebrities, and includes Majorca.

To read where else they consider to be celebrity favourites for holidays click through to them here

Meanwhile, this is what they have to say about Majorca:

Majorca, Spain: A favourite with German and British vacationers for decades, stars such as Catherine Zeta Jones and Michael Douglas, Boris Becker (the German tennis champ), Julio Iglesias (the Spanish singer), Antonio Banderas and Sting all vacation here.

Leonard Cohen played a concert in Palma last summer.

This year’s Wimbledon tennis champ Rafael Nadal was recently snapped enjoying the waves with his girlfriend (he hails from Manacor).

Away from the celeb spotting, “real” Majorca is wonderfully lush and hilly and the climate is just perfect.

For more details about Majorca holidays visit yourmajorca.net

Menorca Blog

With the banking crises and subsequent recession in Europe and the U.S. over its worst (hopefully) this year had all the signs of being a good one for the Menorca holidays industry.

Tourist arrivals to the island has been down in the last couple of years, in common with most Mediterranean islands, as a direct result of the bank failures and subsequent recession that hit consumer spending on things like overseas holidays hard.

But a turnaround was definitely on the cards with good early bookings, and a sense of optimism was in the air among the hotel owners and flight operators.

But then came along Eyjafjallajokull - or as it’s become better known in Europe and the wider world, the Iceland volcano - which after erupting continuously for over a month caused an ash cloud that grounded planes, left holidaymakers stranded, and caused a lot of people to reconsider their Menorca holidays for this year.

The direct consequence has been that instead of booking a few months ahead many tourists have held off and are booking their Menorca holidays much closer to their intended arrival dates - leaving some tour operators and villa holiday companies with excess accommodation and reducing prices.

And airlines lost out big time as those based in the EU had to pay for accommodation for those passengers they couldn’t fly home, even though insurers often got away with paying out. The airlines industry feel that as the governments stopped them flying, they should now pay their bills without some will run at a loss this year.

It’s not just Menorca that has been affected by the volcano among the Mediterranean islands where tourism forms an important part of the local economy, and is reliant on flights to bring the tourists in to their hotels and for their villa holidays for a week or two.

Malta for example saw a sharp decline in visitors in April and May, and local media have reported that the national flag carrier Air Malta could have lost over 3 million Euros in April alone as their planes were effectively grounded and flights to their important UK market halted altogether for some time.

Unlike Malta, Menorca doesn’t have an airline to speak of that it can call her own, but Mahon Airport is well served with both low cost airlines and tour operators from both the UK and Germany have regular flights to Menorca at various times of the day, with scheduled flights available out of the holidays season.

But there is some good news around, despite the awful start to the year. While there were plenty of Menorca villa holidays available for June and July to be booked when looking for availability in early May, a month later a lot of them had gone by early June, showing that potential visitors were gaining confidence as the volcano quietened down.

And the price cuts that were showing are now back to something like their normal level. But for those thinking of taking a villa holiday in September when the weather is still normally good, there are some available for under UK 700 - it’s quiter then with the schools back and if Menorca villa holidays are something to be considered it could be worth investigating further and booking ahead to get a good deal.

More details about Menorca, including a forecast and today’s Menorca weather are at yourmenorca.net and for independent comments visit social media like jumptags

The Daily Telegraph report that holiday prices are being cut for this summer, and there’s some good bargains around, including from the UK’s top travel companies Thomson and Thomas Cook Holidays.

The Telegraph comment:

The price war has been kicked off by travel giant Thomas Cook and the UK’s biggest chain of independent agents, The Co-operative Travel.

Celebrity couple Jamie and Louise Redknapp will star in adverts re-introducing the slogan ‘Don’t just book it, Thomas Cook it’ from today/Sat featuring special deals.

This includes a fortnight’s holiday for the price of an 11-day break, which the company claim is the equivalent of a 20 per cent discount.

Other offers include a number of free child places and free meals for kids in resorts, special packages for single parent families and others.

The Co-op, meanwhile, will today/Sat launch its own offers for next summer including straight 20 per cent discounts, free child places and deposits of just £50 to give people time to pay.

Rivals such as Thomson Holidays along with the individual airlines are expected to join in the price war in the hope of turning around 2009 figures.

Although the annual total is not known yet, it is estimated that the number of Britons going abroad for leisure - as opposed to business travel - fell around 14 per cent this year.

Travel companies had planned for some of this loss by cutting capacity and room availability particulary after weathermen had, wrongly, predicted a ‘barbecue summer’ in the UK.

Now they are hoping Britons who have weathered the worst of the recession as well as suffering miserable weather at home will book early to travel next summer.

The Co-op say early bookings so far this month are up 26 per cent on the same period last year.

To read the full article click here

For a Majorca weather forecast visit http://www.yourmajorca.net

Thomson Holidays have included Majorca as one of their top ten holiday destinations they think will perform well in 2010 - they comment:

Majorca has always been a big hit with us Brits and that’s not about to change. Just a short flight away, the island offers great weather, trendy cities and beautiful sunsets. The un-favourable exchange rate won’t be such a problem next year as more hotels start to offer all-inclusive board in Majorca which shows the island is adapting to demand. 

In 2010, First Choice will introduce the first ‘Splash’ resort to the island, the 3 sun Hotel Saturno in Alcudia. Customers can benefit from ‘Free Kids’ places, a choice of flexible durations including 10 and 11 nights and unlimited use of the on-site water-park. First Choice also features one of its flagship family Holiday Villages in the resort of Ca’n Picafort which was awarded overall winner out of all Holiday Villages, by First Choice customers in 2009.

More details for Majorca with holidays from both First Choice and Thomson Holidays are available by visiting yourmajorca.net - they also include a Majorca weather forecast 

Alcudia Pollensa

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