Peterborough's Thomas Cook unveils 'unique' insight into our holiday habits

The 18 page brochure released today is made of statistics and graphics detailing each step we take from the moment we decide to go away to the time we reach our destination.

It reveals our favourite destinations and outlines how we choose where to go - apparently one in four people admit to thinking about holidays everyday.

How we book our vacations - through our mobiles to in store - the time we are likely to book our break to how we get ready to enjoy our long for vacation are all analysed.

It compares the holiday habits of British travellers with our counterparts across Europe and even provides a few handy tips for saving money.

Introducing the first Thomas Cook Holiday Report 2017, chief executive Peter Fankhauser writes: “As one of the world’s leading holiday companies with 19 million customers from 16 countries and 176 years’ experience, Thomas Cook has unique insight into how, where and why people holiday.

“So it makes sense for us to produce a group-wide report looking into the holiday habits of our sun-seeking customers.

He adds: “It is perhaps surprising we haven’t done it before.”

From the report, we learn that while holiday searches online occur every hour, holiday bookings only outstrip searches after 6pm.

The brochure dubs this “wine o’clock, when the kids are in bed and we chill on the sofa - possibly with a glass of something nice.”

It finds that fears a ‘Trump slump’ may deter holiday makers jetting to America are unfounded.

Thomas Cook says bookings to the US are good despite the apparent unpopularity of newly elected president Donald Trump.

The USA is the fourth most popular destination for summer this year with bookings at Thomas Cook up 10 per cent on last year.

However, Spain (mainland, Balearics and Canaries) are still the number one getaway choice for British holiday makers. Greece is the second favourite, followed by Turkey.

With Brexit turmoil in mind, the report adds: “Given the squabbles of the European political union, a recent survey of people in the UK, Germany and Scandinavia found 98 per cent prefer to mix with other nationalities.”