Cruising was the most popular holiday type for The Personal Travel Consultants for the first time ever this spring, partly due to cruise lines’ promotions and agent incentives.

The Spanish islands, in particular the Canaries, accounted for the second highest number of bookings from March to May.

Two long-haul destinations, Maldives and Mauritius, featured in The Personal Travel top five. PTC said sales were driven by the ‘market-leading’ offers that its partner Blue Bay Travel secured for its homeworkers.

“Destinations which had low rates of COVID and lenient entry restrictions earlier on in the year, like Greece [in fifth place], also benefited from increased bookings,” said Sales Manager Abbie Heaton.

However, she said the company has noticed more hesitation among customers to book short-haul trips, due to the media coverage of flight cancellations and airport chaos.

“Spring has been a tough period for travel with cancelled flights and media reports of airport chaos, which is an ongoing issue and is causing some concern as we approach the peak summer holiday season,” she added.

PTC’s average booking has been around £4,500, with 5pm being the peak time for sales.

“Being available to customers outside of the traditional working hours has really paid dividends,” said Abbie.

Half of all bookings made between January and May were for this summer, 25% were for winter 2022/23.

“Summer ’22 departures dominated, accounting for 50 per cent of the bookings made between January and end of May, followed by 25 per cent for Winter 22/23,” said Abbie.

PTC’s best day so far this year was 31 January when it took over £250,000 of bookings, helped by an almost £100,000 sale for Las Vegas.