I never thought searching for a last minute Christmas holiday within England would be so difficult. I recently moved to London and was keen on spending Christmas and New Year’s exploring Cornwall or Wales. To my surprise, I could find hundreds of offers from air and rail suppliers for winter sun holidays to Greece and the Canary Islands, but nothing within the U.K. Deals for Christmas and New Year’s are already sold out on Lastminute.com.  Booking.com doesn’t do holidays, and eBookers and Thomson does not offer holidays within the U.K.

It is strange to see such limited U.K. holiday options for domestic travel.  The U.K. is a predominant packaged travel destination, and boasts a thriving tour operator industry. With gross revenues of £8.8 billion in 2008 according to PhoCusWright’s European Online Travel Overview Fifth edition, the sector accounts for 26% of the total online supplier direct sales in U.K.

Traditional packaged travel has provided a level of insulation from the effects of the economic crisis. However, travel packagers and OTAs are slow to offer domestic U.K. holiday packages for a number of reasons:

• The U.K. domestic air market is not big business for the airlines.  Domestic air passengers declined by 10% in 2008 and the recession continues to hurt this sector.

• Aside from London, the U.K. lacks any other metropolitan tourist destination. Other cities like Birmingham, Manchester, Leeds or Sheffield do not draw as many tourists domestic or international.

• The major U.K. tourist attractions are very spread out. The castles, churches, and scenic attractions are not concentrated at one place and make it extremely difficult for the online tour operator to organize economically.

• Apart from the cities, accommodations in other tourist destinations are often local and independent. These could include a small guest house, cottages, or even a castle. Independent operators prefer to accept bookings offline through the phone and are seldom included in any packages.

• Easy travel to Europe: low cost air, no visa issues, and short travel times make outbound travel the more popular option, especially when there are deals to be found.

• The weather: with more than 8 months of winter, U.K. destinations become invisible to the domestic traveller who is being blinded by sunny, cheap deals.

It seems irrational that London and the U.K. can be one of the top world destinations for outsiders and yet be overlooked by domestic travellers. Tour operators and vacation packagers need to find ways to attract Brits to ‘stay home for the holidays’.

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