Summer holidays begin for more than 2m Brits

With the majority of schools breaking up today (July 18th), the coming weekend is set to be one of the year's busiest getaway periods, with more than two million people leaving British shores.

According to the Association of British Travel Agents (Abta), the perennial favourite, Spain, will once again be the most popular destination, with France, Malta and the Caribbean also seeing strong demand.

The biggest growth in bookings this year, however, relates to Egypt, with a 28 per cent rise in reservations, with Turkey (20 per cent) and the USA (eight per cent) also proving popular.

Abta chief executive Mark Tanzer said: "With a changing economic climate, many existing trends have become more pronounced. Spain for example, is still the top destination this year, but as a mature destination, and with the strong euro, greater growth is being experienced in the mid- to long-haul destinations outside of the eurozone."

He added: "Conversely, there is no surprise that with the weak dollar, the US is doing well, and forward bookings for the US look strong."

With some 460,000 departing passengers, Heathrow Airport is set to be the busiest gateway this weekend, followed by Gatwick Airport, with traffic flow of 260,000.

Manchester Airport (160,000) is set to be busier than the London hub of Stansted Airport (150,000), while hundreds of thousands more are set to travel from the UK's regional gateways.

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