Holidaymakers in Dundee are escaping the winter chill in greater numbers than ever before – with Spain, Portugal and Amsterdam the preferred destinations.
Bookings for short term breaks to warmer shores are up 13% on this time last year according to Colin Ramsay, owner of Ramsay Travel.
Traditional holiday destinations including Barcelona, the Costa Blanca, Algarve, Canary Islands and Madeira top the list in the Mediterranean.
And bookings for the new Dundee to Amsterdam flight are as much as four times higher than experts predicted.
Colin said: “Whenever you get the cold weather there’s a surge in bookings.
“And nowadays that’s often short breaks to the Med.
“This year there’s been a significant rise in the number of people who have booked breaks over the next two months — in the last two weeks there’s been a rush to book a short break to somewhere warmer.”
He said that short city breaks had emerged as a popular winter get away — with Amsterdam the top destination among Taysiders.
Colin said: “There’s no sign of interest dropping off and bookings have been about four times what even we expected. We’ve spent thousands on promoting the route, but it’s been so much more popular than anyone could have anticipated.
“I think the increase in flights and locations from Scotland as a whole has helped this boost.
“Plus the flexibility of city breaks — you can choose the number of days and you can change it to what you want.”
Colin said that package holidays in the past were far more rigid and flexibility has been key to boosting bookings.
He also said winter cruises were an emerging trend.
“I think this is a direct consequence of having cruise ships arriving during the summer,” continued Colin.
“It has made people aware of cruises as a holiday option, and so they now think about them far more.
“And, from what people tell us, Christmas shopping trips have snowballed too.
“People are booking short city breaks to go to Christmas markets.
“The one in Berlin is huge for example.”