Travel with Katie Butler of Total Travel: Hello December – You came around so fast!
Well, December is here already, and I am sure I am not the only one wondering how on earth it arrived so quickly. It feels like only a moment ago we were enjoying the longer summer evenings, talking about beach escapes, cruises, and city breaks, and now the festive season is suddenly upon us.
For us in the travel world, December is always a reflective time—looking back on the year’s adventures and ahead to the exciting journeys our customers will take in the year to come. Ordinarily, early December is when we’d be packing our bags for the annual Jet2holidays overseas conference. It is always one of the highlights of our calendar, giving us the chance to catch up with colleagues from around the country, discover new destinations, and hear about what’s coming up for the year ahead.
This year, though, the event has been moved to spring, so although we’re missing our usual winter trip, we’re looking forward to hearing more details in the new year. There’s always a real buzz around the conference announcements, and I’m sure the 2026 edition will be no different.
As many of you already may have read in the past, I am a massive fan of TV travel programmes and am immersed with Celebrity Race Across the World at the moment. If this type of programme is up your street you may have caught the new Jet2holidays series The Great Escapers, which aired as a four-part special on ITV last Sunday. I’d been looking forward to it ever since it was announced, and I must say it didn’t disappoint. The series offers a fascinating look at what goes into making holidays run smoothly. Jet2holidays have teamed up with ITV to take stars from Coronation Street, I’m A Celeb, The Chase and Loose Women and are away on an award-winning Jet2holiday... but there’s a catch.
Three famous faces from each show have jetted off to Rhodes, Spain, Portugal and Malta together, where they have to compete to give their colleagues the best holiday experience they can. They are joined by Jet2holidays Customer Helper, Gio, and each celeb take turns to decide the day’s itinerary. At the end of the trip, the three celebrities must vote for the person they think created the most memorable day, and one of them will be crowned The Greatest Escaper! I recommend you give it a watch.
I’d like to remind our readers that we continue to serve as a drop-off point for Cash for Kids across our Heckmondwike, Ossett, and Brighouse branches. This is a wonderful charity supporting children and families right across West Yorkshire, and December is an especially important time for them. If you’re able to donate a toy or gift this Christmas, no matter how small, it will make a real difference to a child who might otherwise go without. We see incredible generosity from our local community every year, and it’s always heart-warming to be part of something that brings joy to families who need it most.
Dec was the top selling month last week with 12% share and May 26 was 2nd with 10% share of the bookings. Late bookings accounted for 26% share of the total bookings. The top 3 selling destinations based on passenger numbers which were Tenerife, cruises from Southampton and Majorca.