Tuesday 18 January 2022

Specialist adventure operator reports biggest sales day in three years, and second-highest day of bookings ever, on Blue Monday 2022.
 

• Operator reports second-highest number of bookings in a single day ever on Blue Monday 
• Strongest day of sales in nearly three years, showing huge appetite for post-pandemic travel
• Italy topped the charts as yesterday’s most-booked destination, but India, Costa Rica and Jordan all feature in top ten 

Specialist tour operator Explore has this morning reported on a record-day of a sales as its Big Blue Sale draws to an end. The sale, which has seen more than 250 of the operators trips discounted for departures until end of October, has attracted unprecedented demand, which culminated in the biggest single day of bookings in almost three years on its penultimate day. 

Managing Director, Michael Edwards, comments: “We knew there was real pent-up demand for adventure in 2022, and we knew our Big Blue Sale would be big, but this has blown us away. It’s fantastic to see a real mix of destinations being booked, and trips from as soon as next month to well into 2023. Travel is definitely back, and we’re all ready for it.“

Europe continued to lead the way, with Italy (+118%), Spain (+125%) and Greece (+71%) showing the biggest growth compared to pre-pandemic levels. Perhaps unsurprisingly, walking holidays are also proving especially popular – 82% up on 2019 - with people opting for more outdoorsy, more active holidays.  

Meanwhile, amongst high performing long-haul destinations like India, Costa Rica and Jordan, the Maldives (+50%) and Kilimanjaro (+80%) booked very strongly, suggesting pent-up demand for those once-in-a-lifetime, bucketlist experiences after two years of not travelling. 

Named a Which? Recommended Provider for Escorted Tours in 2021 for the second year running, Explore has been recognised throughout the pandemic for continuing to do the right thing by its customers. With an excellent track record and stellar policies in place both pre- and on-trip, Explore company has continued to place huge value on customer trust, which has stood the company in good stead as we return to travel.

For more media information, interview requests, statistics or images, please contact:
Laura Dewar – laura.dewar@explore.co.uk / 07725 746 847