The consortium said bookings for its agency members in England had seen a spike since 9 November when Pfizer announced its vaccine was 90% effective against the coronavirus.

The increase is a further sign of growing consumer confidence, which has also been aided by the imminent reduction in the quarantine period for destinations without a travel corridor with England from 15 December.

Kelly Cookes, Advantage’s leisure director, said: “As expected, bookings for 2020 departures were minimal. What is surprising is that the bookings with departures in.

“Departures for January to March 2021 currently compare favourably with the traditional peak travel dates of June to August 2021. While we have been cautious about expecting pent-up demand, these figures do begin to show some green shoots of recovery.

“It’s clear the British public are keen to get away sooner rather than later and are booking with their trusted local independent Advantage travel agent.”

The sales boost for Advantage members comes as homeworking brand Not Just Travel earlier revealed a week-on-week sales increase of 62%.