The price comparison site recorded its busiest weekend for search since the UK was placed under coronavirus lockdown in March, with price comparison searches for holidays doubling.
These are the first real green shoots of recovery and the bookings offer glimmers of holiday hope for the outbound travel industry," said the firm, which said it had 50%more "click outs" for bookings than it did last weekend.
"However, these shoots are obviously coming much later than they normally would for summer outbound travel. The hope is that these bookings will enable the industry to salvage something of the summer and start reinvigorating."
Up until Friday, searches were largely for holidays later this year, or next year. However, Friday’s announcement has brought summer 2020 into the fold, with people mainly searching for summer package holidays; Spain, Italy, Barbados, Croatia, France and Greece.
Searches for Spanish trips have doubled over the past week, and constitute 38% of all searches at the weekend – the largest share of any destination. Popular searches include the Balearics, Canaries, Costa del Sol and Costa Blanca.
Greece experienced a 216% spike in searches, led by Crete, Corfu, Rhodes and Santorini; Italy 170%; France 167%; Croatia 348%; and Barbados 476% – along with Spain, all these destinations are likely to feature on the government’s list of "green light" destinations, it is understood.
The top five countries for package holiday searches at the weekend were Spain, Greece, Turkey, Italy and Portugal; Portugal held onto its spot in the top five despite a 46% decrease in searches. This is likely due to questions over what colour traffic light it will be given owing to spikes in coronavirus infection in capital Lisbon and the Algarve.
However, according to TravelSupermarket, the country will likely remain a popular option with package holiday prices down around a third since the start of lockdown.
With more details of the government’s traffic lights scheme due on Wednesday (1 July), TravelSupermarket expects an even greater increase in demand once there is greater clarity on where Britons will be able to travel without restriction.
"I think people will be confused still as to which countries will definitely allow them to holiday there without quarantining," said TravelSupermarket travel commentator Emma Coulthurst. "For now, people will be sticking to booking holidays to those countries which have confirmed there is no need to quarantine."
Other key takeaways from TravelSupermarket is that it is currently cheaper to holiday abroad than at home; reassurance will be as important as price when it comes to the resumption; and countries that are improving and communicating their key health and safety measures are more likely to win back tourists.
