Top 10 most popular destinations for 2022

With foreign travel now much easier thanks to the removal of pre-departure tests last week, ABTA – the Travel Association has revealed the top 10 destinations that people are planning to visit this year, with travellers craving a mix of far-flung, bucket list destinations and firm favourites closer to home.

Number one on people’s travel wish list is Spain, with 29.3% of respondents saying they plan to visit in 2022.

Offering sun, sea and sand aplenty, Spain has long been the UK’s favourite holiday destination and usually attracts over 18 million of us each year.

Moving up to second place – and topping the list of long-haul destinations – is the USA, which reopened its borders to UK tourists in November 2021. Almost 1 in 5 (18.1%) people plan to travel there this year, with New York and Florida among the most popular destinations.

Two further long-haul destinations that are rising in popularity are Australia (5.1%) and Canada (4.5%), both up two places from last year to eighth and ninth respectively. Offering breath-taking landscapes, incredible wildlife and cosmopolitan cities to explore, their increased popularity points to two trends ABTA expects to see in 2022 – people catching up on travel by booking a holiday of a lifetime and taking the time to reconnect with family and friends abroad.

The classic European holiday havens of France, Italy and Greece  round off the top five, all promising world-renowned culture and gastronomy as well as lots of options for a sunshine-filled beach getaway during the summer months.

While Portugal and Germany remain the sixth and seventh most popular locations, Turkey has moved up two places to the tenth most popular destination this year. This increased popularity could be due to the exceptional value for money it currently offers UK holidaymakers as the Turkish lira has fallen considerably against the pound.

The relaxation of the UK’s testing requirements have made travel more accessible – from 7 January fully vaccinated travellers no longer need to take a pre-departure test when returning to the UK. The day two test changed from PCR to lateral flow on 9 January. 

The top 10 overseas destinations people plan to travel to in 2022 are:

• Spain 
• USA 
• France
• Italy 
• Greece 
• Portugal
• Germany 
• Australia 
• Canada 
• Turkey