I'm surprised that Turkey is below Portugal and Italy and quite surprised to see Ireland in the top ten at all.

Interesting reading. No suprises with numbers one and two really, guess these have been the same for 30 years. I'm suprised to see Turkey in the top ten especially as it's now as expensive as lots of other Med style destinations.

Really surprised to see Ireland in there, to be sure!

i cant believe spain is no.1!!!

i cant believe Spain is no.1!!!

not my first choice of destination but i will be there in a couple of weeks time... why?? short flights, warmer than UK,and compared to other areas Cheap..

for many the short flights and Blackpool in the sun reputation and fast food/English food& drink make it a comfortable place for the less adventurous

wizard

I wonder what percentage ot the 12 million are aged between 18-25 I would hazzard a guess that it's fairly high

Why can't you believe Spain is number one.?

not my first choice of destination but i will be there in a couple of weeks time... why?? short flights, warmer than UK,and compared to other areas Cheap..

for many the short flights and Blackpool in the sun reputation and fast food/English food& drink make it a comfortable place for the less adventurous

Spain is a fabulous country and why people have to compare it to Blackpool is beyond me.
There's a lot more to Spain than the Costa's and quite a few travellers like the city breaks to places like Madrid, Barcelona or Sevilla...here you will find culture, architecture, historical buildings, Museums, Cathedrals etc etc etc.
The fact that Spain is number one, is testimony to its versatility by not only standing the test of time, but also moving with the times and catering for all ages from all walks of life....whatever they seek from a visit to the country.
Viva Espana !

Sanji

I agree with sanji there is a lot more to Spain. We have for the last five years gone to the Costa Luz (miles and miles of quiet beaches) and almeria region which are a lot quieter and nicer (for us anyway) than costa de sol and costa blanca. Lots of people do not know these places exist and only believe the spain they see on television.

Where has someone who 'cant beleive Spain is No 1' been living for the past 50 years? Whilst I have been to many many countries I wouldn't diss anybodies choice of Spain as a holiday destination, only the ignorant would make assumptions.

It's 1000 miles from North to South (I once travelled it by train ) I would imagine Spain could be a million different holidays to a million different people.

And I don't beleive for a moment most of the 12 million holidaymakers are between 18-25.

I went to Benidorm and Magalluf as a teenager( a long time ago) and at that time it was all about nightlife only for me- they were discos not clubs then I then went elsewhere but the perception of it being a place only for youngsters and nighltife stayed with me and I avoided going back to Spain. A few years back I went for 4 days to Barcelona and this year I went to Madrid. I loved both places and am looking at trying somewhere else- if only I could learn enough Spanish to try the less touristy places.
Spain is so easy to get to. I have friends who regularly go away long weekends as its cheaper than a break in Britain.
I have to say that I was surprised by the top 10. Looking at how busy our forums are- Spain is top as we have so many forums for it , so that's not a surprise.However France and Italy(2 and 4 in the list) are really quiet forums. Our busiest single forums are Turkey and Goa. Turkey is 9 in the list and Goa isnt there at all.

LOL Fiona. I sometimes think HT should stand for Holiday Turkey Forum not Holiday Truths Forum. shame about Goa though.

Spain does have an awful lot to offer and given it's closeness to the UK I can understand why it is so popular. As for the "Blackpool in the sun" tag.........It's the Brits that are to blame for that one, of course not all Brits abroad behave badly but enough of them do and it gets us all a bad reputation (unfair but true)!!
GFF xx

I imagine the statistics are skewed by the number of long weekends we now take. Places like Turkey will generally pick up the summer holiday travellers but how many people do you know who have gone to Dublin or Paris for a long weekend and who perhaps do several weekends away in the year.

I agree Spain has a lot to offer. I have toured all over Spain and love the atmosphere. I will be going to Benidorm for Christmas as I have done for quite a few years. The main reason we go is because of shortage of holiday left at the end of the year, it is easy to get to and we have a great time. We used to go to the Canaries but after trying Benidorm one year we were converted. The weather is better than the Canaries at Xmas and it is not full of English pensioners as some people seem to think. When we go for a walk on the sea front after Xmas lunch the promenade is full of well dressed Spanish people and its lovely to walk down the sea front in all your finery in the sunshine in the late afternoon and not feel out of place. We have a lovely action packed week as well as going on lovely walks in the surrounding countryside - and the sales are on in the shops! I can really recommend it but you must go with an open mind. I have to admit though I would go elsewhere if I wasn't short of holidays - purely for the hot sun.

As far as I can see the list doesn't distinguish between main annual holidays, second holidays and weekend breaks and I think that the growing popularity of short city breaks is reflected in the list. The Spanish coastal resorts are undeniably popular - but so are city breaks in Spain. The Spanish coastal resorts aren't my cup of tea but places like Seville and Granada are. Having been to Seville in September for work I'm already planning a return visit in the spring with a pal for a long weekend. The increase in the number of inland Spanish cities served by the lo-co operators makes this sort of trip easy and cheap to do. And the Canaries are my favorite 2nd holiday/winter break destination as I am sure they are for many of us and this will ehlp push Spain up to the top of the table too.

Similarly, when I go and visit friends down on the south coast we often make a quick trip over to France while I'm down there. Some of them go 3/4 times year in order to stock up on wine and every one of those trips is doing its bit to push France up the Top 10 list. With the $ as weak as it is at the moment against the £ then I suspect that a good few weekend shopping trips to New York are supplementing all those family holidays to Florida to push to US into 2nd place.

Few of us probably make a trip to Ireland our main holiday but lots of us probably popover to Dublin or now Belfast for the weekend and don't forget - those of us from the Irish diaspora might think we're only going to visit family but the Irish Tourist Board probably counts us as tourists!

Whereas Turkey isn't really a shortbreak destination - it's very popular for main holidays but Istanbul as yet just doesn't clock-up the weekend city breaks in the way that cities in Spain, northern Italy and France do.

SM

Has that feature been removed? Unless I'm blind I can't see it...

its the link on the first message puddleduck.

I also can't find the topic. Have clicked on the link and found the aol site but can't find the topic.

It's vanished from the AOL Page but the full report is still on the ABTA page, halfway down:

http://shaftesbury.venus.co.uk/abta/news/2007/07/1383.htm