Sunshine delays holiday bookings

Forecasts of a hot summer in the UK are persuading Britons to postpone foreign holidays until autumn or later.

As many as 56 per cent of people are planning a later-than-normal break this year, a poll by online travel agency www.sunshine.co.uk found.

The main reasons for the postponements were the cheaper cost of off-peak breaks and the fact that people expected the UK summer to be warm.

A total of eight per cent said they were putting back their holiday so they had longer to save up money for it.

But 43 per cent of the 1,092 British holidaymakers polled said they had already booked their break.

Sunshine.co.uk co-founder Chris Brown said: “The recent spout of warm weather here in the UK has obviously made many people optimistic about the impending British summertime and many obviously want to stick around to make the most of the good weather.”