Last year, I wrote about late bookings becoming the new normal. Back then, the headlines were full of noise about the return of the lates market. Demand was there, consumers were hanging back and operators were still dealing with shorter booking windows after years of disruption, squeezed household budgets and a sense of ‘let’s just see what happens’.
A year on, and here we are again. Except this time, the lates conversation feels a little different. Lates demand is no longer just a handy summer sales push or a last-minute PPC campaign with a few ‘deal ends soon!’ messages thrown in. It’s now a more complicated mix of value-seeking, caution, confidence, availability and timing.
So, what exactly is happening with the lates market in 2026?
Let’s start with the obvious.
People are still booking late
In April, Travel Weekly highlighted renewed demand for ‘late, late bookings’, with Independent Travel Experts saying 20% of month-to-date bookings were for travel within the same month. And just a couple of weeks ago, agents reported strong demand for late bookings during the May half-term break, with Hays Travel noting the late-booking window had compressed from around six weeks to roughly four.
Elsewhere, Designer Travel reported that the lates market accounted for nearly 70% of its business in a single week, although overall revenue was slightly down despite the surge in bookings.
And the latest Travel Outlook 2026 report from TTG and PwC adds another useful proof point here, with 45% of surveyed travel leaders saying late bookings were ahead of expectations.
Yes, the 2026 lates market is booming. But it’s also evolving, due in no small part to recent global events. There are concerns around fuel costs. Uncertainty linked to conflict in the Middle East. Let’s not also forget the alarming headlines shouting about nightmare queues and missed flights thanks to the new EES system (another fabulous Brexit benefit!).
This all makes life harder for marketers, as a lates campaign now has more to do than simply shout about price. It has to match real availability, reflect the customer’s level of confidence and avoid creating demand that the business can’t convert profitably.
The bargain-hunting bit is getting harder
The traditional lates market has always had a bit of theatre about it. Bide your time, then swoop in at the last minute and bag yourself a nice deal. All great, assuming you don’t mind flying from somewhere inconvenient at 5.00am and telling yourself that a ‘partial sea view’ definitely counts. But in 2026, that model is harder to bank on.
Travel agents are already warning customers there may not be a glut of cheap deals later in the summer. Some suppliers are still using offers to stimulate demand, but others are holding firm, increasing prices or dealing with cost pressures linked to fuel, capacity and geopolitical uncertainty.
TTG and PwC’s research backs this up too. In its Travel Outlook 2026 report, 48% of surveyed travel leaders said discounting is making consumers expect lower prices, while the same proportion said consumers are booking later to pick up a discount. That’s the awkward bit for marketers. Discounts can create demand, but they also risk encouraging travellers to hold their nerve and book later.
‘The lates market is dying’
Some leading industry figures are voicing their concerns. Ambassador Cruise Line chief executive Christian Verhounig has gone so far as to declare that ‘the lates market is dying’, warning agents they can no longer rely on short booking windows, last-minute demand and price slashing.
“For the travel industry, the message is stark. The era of short booking windows is drawing to a close and the lates market with it. Persistent geopolitical volatility will force both operators and travellers to plan further ahead, without the fallback of distressed inventory suddenly appearing to boost suppliers’ coffers and tempt consumers with a perceived bargain”
I always take hyperbolic statements like ‘the lates market is dying’ with a big dollop of salt. That said, I do think the times, they are a-changing. ‘Lates’ no longer simply means ‘cheap’ by default. It now also means undecided or cautious, weighing up risks and making a judgement call on whether a holiday still feels doable.
Travel marketers, take note. If your messaging still treats every late booker as a bargain hunter, you’ll miss the people who are actually just looking for certainty, flexibility or a reason to feel comfortable committing.
Late bookers are looking for reassurance
An analysis by Mintel in partnership with Snoop reported that UK consumer spending on airlines fell by 7% in the first two weeks of March 2026 compared with the previous year, with Gulf carriers particularly hit. But here is the silver lining for the trade: travel agent sales saw a 5% lift during that exact same fortnight.
When global instability spikes (as is very much the case now), the do-it-yourself getaway becomes less appealing. The analysis suggests that a large proportion of the lates market aren’t simply on the hunt for great deals but are also seeking a safety net. With the average cost of a holiday up significantly over the last few years, clients are increasingly antsy about losing their money if things go wrong.
ABTA is already tapping into this with its 'The Time is Now' phase of the Travel with Confidence campaign. The goal is to drive last-minute summer holiday bookings by encouraging UK travellers to book with ABTA members, highlighting the reassurance, value, expertise and support they offer at a time when some consumers remain hesitant.
This again suggests that the winning message right now isn't 'grab it before it is gone' for the sake of a cheap deal, but rather 'book late, but book with someone you trust'.
The family market remains tricky
In April, Hays Travel flagged that demand for lates was there, particularly among couples booking eight to 12 weeks out, but that family bookings were not where expected. Advantage also noted that families had been put off by higher prices earlier in the year, with budgets still under pressure.
This shouldn’t come as a huge shock.
Families typically have less flexibility on dates, fewer departure options and a much smaller margin for risk. A couple can decide to pop off to Tenerife next Thursday if the price is right. A family of four juggling school holidays, passports, luggage and childcare logistics may not feel quite so spontaneous.
For brands primarily targeting families, this makes messaging harder. Push lates too hard and you risk it becoming the norm. Bang the ‘book early’ drum too loud and you may miss those still undecided. The sweet spot is probably somewhere in the middle, with clear availability, honest pricing, flexibility and reassurance around what’s included.
Cruise is having a moment
Christian Verhounig might think the lates market is dying, but that sentiment is not universally shared. Despite recent news events concerning hantavirus and norovirus outbreaks, 2026 is heralded to be a record-breaking year for the sector, with late bookings set to be a big part of that. Oceania Cruises’ sales manager Louise Craddock backed this up, saying the trade would be ‘flooded with late bookings’ as travellers look to flee the unreliable UK weather.
“This [lates period] is going to be bigger than we’ve had in any season because people will get to the end of the month, realise it’s still raining, and want to go away”
Clearly she said this before the May heatwave hit.
From a marketing point of view, cruise is a good reminder that value doesn’t always have to mean the cheapest lead price. It can mean clarity, convenience, inclusions and the feeling that the customer knows exactly what they’re getting.
What travel marketers should do now
The lates market still has plenty of life in it, but the old playbook won’t cut it anymore. Here are some of our top tips for how travel brands can stay ahead of the curve:
1. Keep paid search tight
Generic ‘last minute holidays’ campaigns can become expensive very quickly. Use destination, date and audience qualifiers where possible.
‘Last minute Greece holidays in June’, ‘late summer family holidays’ or ‘Canaries deals from Luton’ will usually tell you more about intent than broader terms.
Make sure ad copy matches the reality of what’s available. If prices are only strong for certain dates or departure airports, say so. Sending people to vague offer pages with limited relevance is a quick way to waste spend.
Also keep a close eye on margin. High search demand doesn’t automatically mean good commercial demand. If the clicks are cheap but the product is unavailable, uncompetitive or low margin, the campaign is just creating more, but less fruitful, work.
2. Build proper lates landing pages
If lates are important to your travel business, then you’ll need strong, visible landing pages to promote them.
Create a clear lates hub that can be updated regularly with genuine availability, lead prices, departure dates and practical reassurance. Include FAQs around payments, flexibility, ATOL or ABTA protection, baggage, transfers and cancellation terms.
This helps SEO, gives paid campaigns somewhere relevant to land and makes life easier for customers who are ready to book but still need a gentle nudge.
It also gives your team one useful page to keep fresh, rather than scattering late offers across old blog posts, thin deal pages and campaign URLs that nobody remembers existed.
3. Segment email properly
A blanket ‘last chance for summer 2026’ email has its place, but segmentation will do more of the heavy lifting.
People who searched for ‘holidays in Greece’ in January but didn’t book need a different message from families tied to school holidays or couples who travelled last September. Previous customers can be reminded of similar trips. Higher-value customers may respond better to availability, room upgrades or flexible terms than a shouty discount.
This is where travel CRM should earn its keep. Browsing history, previous destinations, booking lead times, party size and typical spend can all help make lates emails feel more relevant.
4. Don’t underestimate the importance of human contact
Travel is one of those industries where human contact can make all the difference. Some of the more interesting hot topics this year are around misinformation and the renewed role of agents. We’ve talked about this in many of our articles over the last few years, most recently in our blogs Team Travel Agent vs Team Self-Booker and How travel brands can respond to misinformation. When customers are uncertain, having an actual human travel expert on hand is a godsend.
For higher-value bookings, family trips, cruise, complex itineraries or nervous travellers, human contact can be the difference that gets the sale over the line.
This means visible phone numbers, live chat, WhatsApp, email follow-ups and branch messaging all need to be joined up. If your PPC ad says ‘speak to a travel expert today’ and the landing page buries the contact details in the footer, that’s not exactly helpful.
It also means marketing and sales teams need to be looking at the same picture. If campaign messaging is driving calls about flexibility, safety, late availability or price matching, that insight should feed straight back into ads, landing pages and email copy.
Travel marketers need to rethink the lates playbook
I think we all had high hopes that in this post-Covid world, there’d be far more certainty and stability in travel, but we're not quite there yet. People want to travel, yet they’re hesitant, and who can blame them?
In 2026, late bookings are being driven by a mix of value-seeking, caution, uncertainty, flexibility and plain old procrastination. Some customers are waiting for deals. Some are waiting for payday. Some are waiting to see if the world starts to feel a little less wobbly.
There’s still a golden opportunity here. But travel marketers will need a savvier approach than simply ‘stick a last-minute banner on the homepage and hope for the best’.
Be specific. Be honest. Be visible when people are ready to act. And remember that late demand doesn’t behave the same across every audience, destination or product. Lates demand still exists, but it needs better segmentation, sharper paid media, more useful content and messaging that understands why travellers are playing the waiting game.
