The global travel group used its UK booking data, combined with customer insight, to shed light on information including popular destinations to visit and popular relations to holiday with.

Turkey looks set to be a popular destination for 2020 and travellers will reportedly be branching out beyond the big resorts and taking time to explore smaller villages. Indeed, trips to the small towns of Dalyan and Ozdere are already up by 12 per cent and seven per cent, respectively, while self-catering is also seeing a rise in popularity ─ there has been a 14-per-cent increase in B&B bookings and an 11-per-cent increase in self catering.

North Africa is another popular destination, with family bookings to Tunisia up by 50 per cent for this winter compared with the same time last year. Looking at next summer, meanwhile, overall bookings are up 25 per cent year-on-year. Marrakech is another popular North American holiday spot, with families accounting for 49 per cent of bookings to Morocco and more than 50 per cent of bookings to Egypt.

When it comes to family holiday dynamics, an interesting trend that is emerging is the growing popularity of multi-generational holidays, with grandparents accompanying parents and children abroad. Today, 64 per cent of families either go on multi-generational holidays or are considering it, up from 57 per cent in 2017.

Thomas Cook predicts that the next big thing in the world of families will be split-generation trips, with 37 per cent of British parents sending their children away on holiday with grandparents or considering doing so for future holidays.

Will Waggott, Chief of Tour Operating at Thomas Cook UK, commented on the trends: “The six million British customers who holiday with Thomas Cook every year are looking for affordable holidays in charming places, the opportunity to open their children’s eyes to new countries, and lasting memories with loved ones across split generations. Turkey and North Africa are destinations we’re falling back in love with – they tick the value for money box thanks to being non-Euro and we expect these countries to continue to appeal to families well into next year and beyond.”

Attention travel insurers – best get updating your country profiles!