Site statistics and search results released by one of the UK’s leading independent online travel agencies have revealed that Britons plan to stay at home this Summer and are delaying their overseas holidays to make the most of the good weather predicted for UK shores.

A new study by one of the UK’s online independent travel agents, along with site statistics released by the agency, has revealed that many Britons are delaying their summer 2011 holiday until autumn; with some believing the UK summer will be too good to miss.

sunshine.co.uk released site data, but also polled 1,092 British holidaymakers to find out more about their travel plans this year. The study was part of ongoing research into the different holiday habits of Britons.

In terms of site statistics, sunshine.co.uk revealed that there has been a 21% rise in holiday bookings for the autumn period, when compared to the same time in 2010. This prompted the site to carry out the poll, to see if the rise in bookings was reflected in people’s holiday plans.

When asked, ‘Are you holidaying later than normal this year, for example in autumn or winter, instead of summer?’ 56% of respondents said ‘yes.’ These respondents were then asked to explain further why this was the case and were told to tick all that applied from a list of possible reasons. The results according to sunshine.co.uk were as follows:

• Cheaper holidays later in the year 42%
• Expecting UK summer to be hot 37%
• Due to work (e.g. holiday availability) 21%
• No particular reason 19%
• Have longer to save up money 8%
• Other 5%.

More than a third, 37%, told sunshine.co.uk that they had moved their holiday to later in the year in order to take advantage of the UK summer first, which they were expecting to be hot.

Respondents were asked whether or not they had already booked their holiday, or whether they had just planned it; to which 43% said they had already booked it.

Chris Brown, co-founder of sunshine.co.uk, said the following: “We recently found that many people had brought forward their summer holiday to Easter, in order to make the most of all the Banks Holidays. Now that Easter is out the way, we wanted to find out if anyone was putting off their summer holiday until later in the year.

“The recent spout of warm weather here in the UK has obviously made many people optimistic about the impending British summertime and many obviously want to stick around to make the most of the good weather. However, we’d strongly advise against moving holiday plans just on the off chance it might be sunny in the UK, because we all know only too well how disappointing British weather can be!”