'Bucket list boom' as Britons rush to book holidays for 2021

Following news that a vaccine for Covid-19 is on the way, travel in 2021 appears to be looking up, with a surge of new bookings.

Cooped up travellers are thinking big for 2021, with the second lockdown appearing to only fuel their desire to go on a blowout trip next year, and a trend has emerged for 'bucket list' destinations.

G Adventures, which specialises in adventure and community tourism, is one of the tour operators witnessing a boom in ‘once-in-a-lifetime’ wilderness trip bookings for next year.

“From the early months of lockdown, we saw a spike in searches for physically challenging trips such as trekking to Everest Basecamp, walking the Inca Trail and climbing Mt Kilimanjaro,” said MD Brian Young. “Whether it’s due to freedoms being taken away, or more people taking up physical activity, there’s real desire among travellers to make next year count. Another benefit with destinations like these is that people are often disconnected from Wi-Fi and phone signal for extended periods, to help counter Zoom fatigue.”

“Over the last few weeks we’ve seen searches surge,” agreed Richard Slater, owner of Henbury Travel and northwest chairman for ABTA. “Last week, for instance, searches for travel in 2020 were up 20 per cent, while 2021 jumped by 68 per cent.” The destinations of choice? All are far-flung.

“The top booking areas last week for winter holidays in 2021 were Mauritius, St Lucia and Grenada,” confirmed Slater. “For summer 2021, the Maldives, Dominican Republic, Mauritius and Mexico were our top performers.” This trend for long haul destinations continues even into 2022, where again, demand is high for the Maldives, Barbados and New York.

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“We had a couple yesterday who are regular bookers – they’ve booked through me for 15 years – who normally always go to Spain. They’ve now booked to go to Mexico next September,” he added.

It’s the same story for Intrepid Travel. “This is definitely a trend that we’re seeing,” agreed MD Zina Bencheikh. “Our customers are looking ahead to 2021 and booking quintessential ‘bucket list’ destinations. They’ve had time during lockdown to dream about and research the places they’ve always dreamed of visiting, and they want to have that big holiday to look forward to.

“Interestingly, our polar trips are doing well at the moment, with customers booking Antarctica cruises in 2021 and 2022. This is the ultimate wilderness escape.”

The reason for the sudden interest in big ticket travel could be a year of enforced frugality, with Slater commenting: “I put it down to the fact that no one is having their hair or nails done, or spending anything really on going out to restaurants or that sort of thing at the minute. So they’ve got more spend to push the boat out on a holiday.”

The uncertainty could be another factor, he added. “They’re also thinking, ‘if this keeps going and we have up and down with this, that and the other, we might be better having a decent holiday, in case it comes back’.”

For Wild Frontiers, however, the demand for these destinations is all about going off-grid. “We have seen a significant increase in demand to visit wilderness destinations,” said Jonny Bealby, founder of Wild Frontiers. “Enquiries to Mongolia and Namibia are up 20 per cent, and Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan are up 30 per cent. Somewhat surprisingly, our 47-day Great Silk Road Adventure is our most popular trip.”

“The new bucket-list isn’t about famous sites or popular cities, it’s about experiences,” added Bealby. “The classic sites are still popular, but they are not being done in the same ‘tick me off’ way. What we are seeing in post-Covid enquiries is a trend for people wanting to do something they’ve never done before: hiking to see mountain gorillas, dog sledding to witness the amazing northern lights, riding horses through Wadi Rum, trekking the Grand Caucasian Trail, walking through the highlands or Ethiopia, travelling the length of the old Silk Road.

“Now more than ever, our clients want to get away from the crowded sites of popular cities and get out into the wild to experience nature and meet the locals that live amongst it.”

Interestingly, for Slater, the over 60s have been a key demographic in the surge in bookings, though they’re going for more traditionally luxurious ‘bucket list’ trips. “Over 50 per cent of our bookings have come from over 60s,” he says.

“We’ve had one lady who’s 91, who normally goes on a Cunard cruise three or four times a year. She’s booked for May, and she said to me ‘you know, Richard, this [pandemic] is wasting the rest of my life’.”

For many older travellers, frustrations may be high that for every month they’re in lockdown – and every year they’re unable to travel – that’s less time to see the bucket list destinations they’ve always wanted to visit. With the dawn of the new vaccine, and hopes high for a return to travel in 2021, this age group may be the keenest among us to get out to further-flung destinations after a year cooped up.

Many are putting down the spike in bookings to the advent of a new vaccine, but for Slater, it’s simpler than that: “People just want something to look forward to.” With 2021 looming, hope around what it will hold is high – a trip to the Maldives only adds to that.

“Over the last few days, we’ve certainly seen a bit of a spike due to the good news about the vaccine, but I don’t think it’ll be anything to write home about immediately. You know what the Government is like about delivering things. I’m 52, and I’m still waiting to get my flu vaccine even though we’re well into November.”

Whether these bookings will translate into real help for the struggling travel industry is still to be seen. “It all depends on how the Government acts, and whether they continue with the chaotic quarantines,” said Slater. “We had the Canaries turned back on, which produced a great spike in bookings, followed ten days later by Lockdown 2. It just makes people annoyed. So 2021 will all be down to the Government – they need to get their act together.”

More clarity over travel corridors will be key, as will a bigger focus on the destinations travellers are actually interested in: long-haul. “We would like to see the Government actually connecting with the travel industry,” said Slater. “We’ve felt very isolated over the pandemic.

“With the figures of what’s selling, it would be very beneficial to us, the consumer, and the Government – because of the tax our industry generates – to say, ‘right, where’s selling? Let’s prioritise the ones that are for a travel corridor’.

“If Mexico’s infection rate is off the scale, and the Government knows there’s not a chance it’ll be added, they can tell us to throttle back on selling those trips. We need some interaction from them to tell us what their plans are.”

Telegraph Travel’s Unlock Long Haul campaign continues to push the Government to do just this, and remove its blanket travel ban in favour of a more tailored approach to long-haul travel.

Either way, it appears that travellers are hoping for more than 2020’s European jaunts and British staycations next year. “People perceive long haul now as better value, despite it being more expensive,” ended Slater. “The quality is better. So people are certainly stretching their legs a bit and going a bit further.”

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