Courting the winter getaway crowd

One of the best cures for the return-to-work January blues is booking a holiday to look forward to in the early part of the year. Latest insight from Kantar Media's TGI survey reveals that there were over seven million adults in Britain canny and wealthy enough to take a holiday or short break in January or February last year.They are - unsurprisingly given the time of year - over three times more likely than the average holidaymaking adult to go skiing or undertake other winter sports. But they are also over twice as likely to take a spa break and 57% more likely to take a city break.

This is also a particularly lucrative group to the tourism industry, being over two and a half times more likely to spend £2,500 or more on short breaks in the last year than the average holidaymaker.

The age profile of those who take early-year holidays is extremely flat, with around 20% of those across most age groups partial to early breaks. However TGI's Lifestage segmentation reveals that those with the fewest family ties are the most likely, taking advantage of not being tied to school term dates. 'Flown the Nest' (aged 15-34, not married or living as couple, do not live with relations) and 'Unconstrained Couples' (aged 35-54 married or living as a couple but no son or daughter) are both groups around a third more likely to take a break in January or February. Indeed, insights from the survey show these Jan-Feb holidaymakers are particularly likely to holiday with friends or their partner, rather than family.

Early-year holidaymakers particularly stand out through their spending power and upmarket characteristics. They are a third more likely than other holidaymakers to be educated to degree level or beyond and a third more likely to be in the top AB social grades. They are also two-thirds more likely to earn at least £50,000.

They are an adventurous bunch, being over a quarter more likely than other holidaymakers to prefer to take holidays off the beaten track, but less likely to just want to eat, drink and lie in the sun. Going abroad is also important and they are almost 30% less likely to like to take holidays in their own country. They are particularly likely, relative to other holidaymakers, to visit extremely far flung destinations such as Australia and Thailand, Malaysia and Singapore.

A desire to stand out and live life to the full are also characteristics that make this group particularly prominent relative to their peers, the TGI data reveals. They are over a quarter more likely to wear designer clothes, just under a quarter more likely to like pursuing a life of challenge, novelty and change and just over a fifth more likely to like to drive fast.

No individual medium stands head and shoulders above others in terms of dominating their media consumption relative to other holidaymakers, although outdoor media and internet come closest. In terms of the websites they are most likely to visit compared to other holidaymakers, these include sites on share prices, newspapers, motoring and - of course - holidays and travel. When it comes to outdoor, they are over a third more likely to have seen advertising very recently at an airport or on the underground.

As featured on Brad Bytes, January 2010