Blue Christmas

Sunshine, like most drugs, releases endorphines in your body and makes you feel good. No wonder not many people are keen on the depressingly dark winter mornings and the freezing cold. Instead, we instinctively just want to get away from it all, and hit the road to enjoy Mother Nature’s club drug: sunshine.

Fully booked already

Neckermann has claimed the majority of its exotic trips are already fully booked, and Vista’s Marketing Manager, Edina Lovas too has reported a significant demand for winter holidays in exotic countries as well as skiing holidays and advent visits to nearby cities.
Trips to Thailand, Cuba, Kenya or Bali are the most popular destinations for the upper middle-class or above with the average price of a holiday costing between Ft350 thousand and Ft800 thousand. What people do not know however, adds Vista’s Edina Lovas, is that Dubai and cruises in the Caribbean offer the same service for considerably lower prices.

Two weeks or nothing

Travel agencies deliberately offer two-week packages, claming that the journey itself can take a whole day when traveling to remote exotic countries and so it is not even worth going for just one week. The high prices, says Lovas (which, according to both Vista and Neckermann, are double  those in the summer) are mainly due to the pricey airplane tickets, whereas costs of accommodation are relatively insignificant.   
On the other hand, explains Neckermann’s Marketing Assistant, István Félix, to The Budapest Sun, customers too are looking out for trips for a fortnight.  Neckermann’s experience has shown, that those who can afford to go on holidays twice a year usually find it difficult to break away from work for two weeks; therefore the winter holiday season that includes both Christmas and New Year’s Eve is a perfect time for them to travel to distant countries for some sunshine.

Visa versus crisis

The fact that Hungarian citizens no longer need a visa to enter the United States does have a huge impact on the demand, says Edina Lovas from Vista, for this year more people have chosen to book trips to spend New Year’s in New York than in London.
The financial crisis, she continues has not hit tourism yet, however, it is likely to happen in a month or two. Traveling being an expense that households can save on, the manager expects a setback in business.

Not sure about your hotel?

Vista offers a service for those who are not sure about which hotel to choose: be it any hotel anywhere on this globe, they will write you a neutral evaluation, including the encounters of previous guests of the hotel in 48 hours. This service is useful all year around, says Lovas, yet it becomes crucial when spending Christmas Eve and New Year’s away from home.