Last Minute Majorca Trend

In the days when internet access didn't exist, the normal procedure for many families was to place a deposit on a holiday in January and pay some off each month, so by the time the summer holidays came along everything was paid for.

It made financial sense as holidays were factored into household expenditure, and a trip to Majorca or elsewhere could be looked forward to during the cold dark winter months.

It was good as well for the travel industry as they could see months before the peak season booking trends and volumes compared to previous years, with reps deployed to the favourite destinations, with some research time between being employed for the summer months and arrival.

For travel agents it made for good business financially. The start of the year was a boom time, and ensured cashflow for the next six to seven months as families faithfully paid the next installment of their annual holiday each month. It worked it seems for everyone.

But prices were higher than today in real terms, and a family holiday abroad in recent years as a percentage of annual household income had fallen over the last twenty years. Often the savings were put into more holidays, and the once a year fortnight often turned into two, three and sometimes four trips a year.

But another travel trend has become stronger recently, enabled by consumers access to travel sites once the preserve of a travel agent, and since the banking crises in the autumn of 2008 and the continued recession value for money has become more important to many - and often the best value for money is booking last minute.

Last minute bookings have been around for some time now, and spawned the name of one of the most famous travel sites which allowed for example flights and a cheap Majorca holiday to be booked at discounted rates if people were able to travel with a few days of booking.

Today it isn't just those with time on their side who are booking last minute - increasingly the population as a whole are booking as late as possible, even if they have fixed annual leave time, to ensure they can still have their Majorca holidays - but at a price they can hopefully afford. And with fewer people taking trips abroad this year than anticipated there is usually a good amount of availability, so the risk factor of booking last minute and finding there isn't anything suitable is greatly diminished.

For those who like Turkey last minute bookings are specially favourable, as bookings have dropped considerably compared to recent years, with much of the blame for the decline put on political unrest in neighbouring countries and in the region as a whole earlier this year.

But what about perenially popular Majorca? Can couples and families leave their booking to the last minute to secure a great deal - and find decent hotels in good areas with Majorca flights included as well?

Taking the tour operator Thomson Holidays as an example, for their late deals they have an aparthotel in Magaluf available, for two adults and two children to include flights at a total cost of under a thousand pounds for a seven night trip in early September.

Magaluf isn't for everyone, and probably not best suited for familes, and more suitable could be Santa Ponsa which has a good reputation for being family friendly. It's more expensive at one thousand three hundred pounds, again for a family of four with flights from Gatwick, but it still represents a good value last minute break.

There's plenty of other tour operators apart from Thomson Holidays who include Majorca, so with a little research it shows that even on popular islands like Majorca a last minute holiday is possible, with different locations available around Europe and beyond.