Many Europeans fly to the sun over Christmas and New Year’s Eve. The Canary Islands are especially popular for the winter holidays, with mild to warm temperatures almost guaranteed. This was revealed by the 2018 winter season TUI Holiday Atlas, which reviews the most popular holiday destinations for Europeans. Gran Canaria occupies the top spot. Tenerife and Lanzarote are also in the top five, which is completed by Phuket in Thailand and Hurghada in Egypt. 

Every year, 20 million tourists travel with TUI to more than 100 destinations throughout Europe. The TUI Holiday Atlas provides an overview of country-specific preferences. Just like last year, Finns, Danes, Norwegians and Swedes have chosen Gran Canaria as their number one destination. Brits, the Irish and Belgians prefer to travel to Tenerife. Germans are also fans of the Canary sunshine, preferably on Fuerteventura, while the French tend to head for Lanzarote. Austrians and the Swiss venture further afield. For holidaymakers from these Alpine counties Malé in the Maldives is the top sunbathing destination. The Dutch are equally enthusiastic about long-distance travel - their absolute dream destination during the European winter is the Antilles island of Curacao. Tourists from Poland on the other hand love to visit Antalya in Turkey.

The TUI Holiday Atlas shows clear trends for this winter season: Spain remains the undisputed number one tourist destination, while Egypt is celebrating a significant comeback in the 2018/19 winter season. The country on the Nile takes second place overall before Thailand. Everywhere people seem to prefer holidays in the heat. Only the Dutch and Germans seem to enjoy travelling to wintery Austria. German tourists are also the only group of holidaymakers happy to spend their holidays in their own country. In third place just behind Spain and Egypt, Germans prefer travelling within their own borders. In terms of trend destinations, the Cape Verde islands are still on the rise. The archipelago in the Atlantic takes fourth place in the list of most popular holiday destinations. An increasing number of travellers, especially from Great Britain, Ireland, Sweden, Finland, Denmark, France, Belgium and the Netherlands, appreciate the mild climate and sun of the African island state. Mexico is the fifth most popular holiday destination this winter, mainly due to very high demand from the UK and Nordic countries.