Belfast travel agent shares most popular 2025 holiday destinations following cold winter chill
With snow and freezing temperatures hitting Northern Ireland this week, many will be looking ahead to our next holiday to sunnier and warmer climes.
The January sales are already in full swing for many local travel agents, who have already seen a rush in bookings since ‘Sunshine Saturday’ last weekend - one of the most popular days of the year to book a holiday.
Many travel groups are braced for a January surge in bookings following the cold winter chill. With holidays still available for this winter, customers are expected to book last minute getaways for January, February and March, as they look to escape the cold weather as well as anticipating strong demand for summer 2025
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Barrhead Travel, one of the UK’s largest retail travel agencies, says that its first full week of January trading has already been off to a strong start, with bookings at the beginning of this week outstripping demand compared with 2024.
The group, which has over 90 retail locations across the UK, expects a flurry of holidaymakers looking to lock in deals for key travel periods. Summer 2025 is the top season, making up more than half of new bookings. December 2025 is also cited as one of the top-selling months so far with Barrhead Travel attributing higher-than-usual demand due to the increased desire to escape the cold during winter.
The leading UK travel firm recently opened its third location here in in Newtownabbey, creating seven new jobs for the town,. and says its sights are firmly set on further expansion.
The Glasgow-headquartered travel agency group first opened here back in 2017, when they unveiled a flagship store in Belfast's Victoria Square shopping centre. In 2022, the group also expanded its operations by launching a remote team of agents, based in Coleraine.
Lisa Hamill, Northern Ireland Regional Sales Manager, says that with the freezing temperatures outside, there’s no better time to book a holiday and have some sun to look forward to.
“Across our Northern Irish locations, we’re seeing summer sun resorts proving popular – places like Mallorca, Fuerteventura, Alicante and Costa Blanca are amongst our most-booked destinations so far this January. Disneyland Paris is also in high demand for families across the key school holiday periods.
“We’re also noticing a shift from our young clients – swapping out traditional young and lively holidays for far-flung bucket-list destinations like Dubai and the Far East. With our new store in Newtownabbey, we’re excited for a very busy month of helping our customers plan in their 2025 holidays,” she added.
Find your nearest Barrhead Travel store by visiting https://www.barrheadtravel.co.uk/storelocator.
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