Skyscannerhas revealed that 59% of travellers would like a ‘families only’ section onboard flights in a recent survey of 2,000 people.

The survey was prompted by the news that a woman claimed that a baby’s screaming on a Quantas flight made her ears bleed. It found that 68% of non-parents liked the idea, but less than a third of parents surveyed were in agreement.

It also found that almost 70% ‘wanted to sit as far away as possible from children’ and almost 25% of non-parents said that they would prefer to flights that were free from children altogether. 45% of parents said they didn’t want a families-only section because they didn’t want to sit next to ‘other people’s horrors’.

Skyscanner users also put forward suggestions as to how to solve the problem of noisy children on flights, these included the provision of a baby nursery, only allowing well-behaved children to travel, and on user (we hope as a joke) suggested “children should go in the hold”!

Skyscanner PR manager Mary Porter said: “As a relatively new mum myself I can still remember that feeling of dread when you found yourself seated next to a baby on a long flight; however since regularly flying with my one year old, I am much more aware of what a stressful, and often embarrassing, situation it can be for parents.

“However, I’m not surprised that in a previous poll we found young children were deemed to be the “most annoying” factor on flights. When tempers are frayed, a screaming child can cause a major disturbance for fellow passengers.

“If passengers are prepared to pay extra for child-free flying, perhaps the solution is a premium adults-only section, rather than a pre-allocated families section, giving airlines yet another extra they can charge for?

“I am sure this service would prove really popular on routes that attract a lot of families such as flights to Orlando.”

Long gone are the days of many suitcases! Picture by Flickr User kthread

It may come as a surprise that women are better at packing to go on holiday, according to a Holiday Extras survey. The misconception is that women pack more, which may be true sometimes, but the survey revealed that women will wear most of the clothes they pack, whereas men return with 20% of the clothes in their suitcase unworn.

In the web survey of 600 customers, men were far more savvy when it came to shoe packing however. 92% of them get away with three pairs or fewer whereas a quarter of women surveyed claim to take between four and nine pairs, with 7% even admitting to taking over 10 pairs!

Holiday Extras beauty expert, Michele Betzner, advises laying clothes out before packing to avoid taking similar items, restricting your colour range so more things coordinate and settling on three multi-purpose pairs of shoes plus some flip flops.

Follow these tips and you could have cheaper hold luggage or avoid charges altogether by reducing your luggage to carry-on only. It will make travelling easier too as no one enjoys lugging a huge suitcase around a new holiday destination, especially if you have to get to your accommodation by public transport.

Over 3,500 people voted in the first Lonely Planet Awards, created in association with adventure operator Explore.

Benidorm topped the vote for ‘I wouldn’t go there if you paid me’.

Surprisingly an evening of reggae on the beach in Negril, Jamaica was considered the greatest cultural experience ahead of the opera in Italy and salsa dancing in Cuba.

The best historical experience was voted as visiting the Mayan temples at Tikal in Guatemala.

Italian was voted the best cuisine and on a wish list of travel companions Michael Palin, Stephen Fry and Joanna Lumley topped the list.

Three weeks is the ideal length of a holiday, according to an online poll of 1,826 British holidaymakers.

The study by Sunshine found 67% said three weeks would be ideal.

“I was surprised three weeks was considered a perfect holiday for the majority, as I really thought it would be longer,” said Chris Brown, the company’s co-founder.

“When we looked more into it, however, we found that 41% thought they would miss home by the fourth week. It’s really interesting to break it down like this and see all the factors that make up a ‘perfect’ holiday for the majority.”

The survey also found that the dream choice of accommodation for most (78%) was a private villa.

The best constant temperature was found to be 28°c, so not too hot but not too cold either.

So, if you are part of the 78% whose ideal accommodation is a villa, check out the main website to start searching!

To get you started, how about a beautiful 3-bed villa on the jewel island of Elba, only 150m from the sea (the survey revealed 100m away from the sea would be perfect, but this is pretty close!). It has 2 bathrooms, living/dining room, verandas on the front and back of the property and a large swimming pool! Check out the Villaseek page for more info and pictures.

In an article in the Metro newspaper last week it was reported that in a recent survey of popular beach holidays Sydney has gone from a popular destination to the bottom of the list. The Aussie city scored 18 out of 100, with crime ranking as a particular low point in the survey.

Budget destinations  most favoured by Brits abroad include North Tunisia, Turkey and Bulgaria’s Back Sea Coast.

Of the different categories to help rate destinations, Egypt’s Sharm el Sheikh came top for climate. Brit’s priorities in choosing a destination consist mainly of affordability, closely followed by security, weather and good food.

MPs appear to be keen holiday makers according to the first annual ABTA Parliamentary Holiday Survey. It found that 56% of MPs will be taking their holiday abroad this summer with 50% of their colleagues in the House of Lords following suit.

Seventy-five per cent of MPs surveyed will be visiting short-haul destinations and about a quarter going to long haul destinations. The Mediterranean fared well as most popular for overseas holidays and Scotland rated top for domestic tourism.

91%  of peers said they took two or more holidays a year while half of them said they enjoyed three or more!

57% of MPs said they took two or more holidays, which is slightly below the national average.

ABTA chairman John McEwan said: “Our first ABTA Parliamentary Holiday survey clearly shows that a summer break and other holidays throughout the year, are as important for our political representatives as for the rest of us.

“ABTA is calling on Government to recognise this importance and cancel the planned drastic increase in Air Passenger Duty this November which will see a family of four paying £360 in tax for a flight to Florida at a time when family budgets are already under severe pressure.”

A recent survey by a travel website found that nearly 75% of holidaymakers said they plan to fly with smaller bags or just hand luggage in order to avoid charges and possible fines.

Over 40% of the respondents to lastminute.com’s survey said they are now confused by new rules on taking bags onto an aircraft, and a fifth said they had been caught out by new regulations and been fined accordingly.

Have any of you been caught out by the new rules and regulations? We’ve tried to cover news of such regulations on the blog as they come to light to prevent travellers from being stung by avoidable fines. A blog that continues to be relevant includes recent airline price hikes and also tips to beat or lower them, view the full blog here.

Below is a chart showing the average costs of carrying a single bag within the hold on a low cost airliner (flying short haul) sourced from MoneySupermarket.com April 2010. The figures are for return flights.

Jet 2 £24

Thompson £23

Flybe £20

Easyjet £18

Monarch £26

Aer Lingus £8

Thomas Cook £16

BMI Baby £28

Ryanair £40

Average £22.55

The World Travel & Tourism Council (WTTC) have announced that government plans to cut up to half of the staff at the Department for Culture, Media and Sport could “stagnate” growth in the sector and accused the coalition government of showing “incredible short-sightedness and bad judgement”.

WTTC president and CEO Claude Baumgarten said tourism represents a similar share of GDP to the financial and business services sector.

“But while the latter received a bailout to the tune of £850 billion and still struggles in its lengthy recovery, the government appears to be actively working to stagnate growth in Travel & Tourism,” he said.

He warned that the government’s pledge to stop Heathrow expansion, its overreaction to the volcanic eruption, unfair taxation from Air Passenger Duty to a VAT increase, and the continuing challenges of visa processes and procedures will all damage tourism.

“If it continues down this path, the UK will quickly lose its competitive advantage and find itself fall from the top ten league of international destinations,” said Baumgarten.

“We are not asking for a handout, but the private sector needs this government to implement policies that will help it thrive and quickly create new employment opportunities to help bring the UK further out of recession.”

This comes as independent research by Deloitte and Oxford Economics shows that Britain’s tourism economy will grow faster in the next decade than retail, chemicals, transport, and manufacturing. However, the report highlights that this growth is only possible with help and cooperation from the government. See the full blog on this report at our sister site, HolidayCottages.

The WTTC plans to meet with the Prime Minister to increase his understanding of the potential of the Travel & Tourism industry and the challenges it faces.

Last year was the fastest fall in rate of trips made by Brits to foreign countries since the 1970s, according to the Office for National Statistics (ONS).

It recorded 58.6 million trips in 2009, compared to 69 million in 2008, and says the fall was mirrored by foreign visitors to Britain too.

ONS says these figures are an aberration after years of steady growth both into and out of the UK. Visits abroad have grown by 4% on average per year in the past 25 years and visits to the UK have increased at 3.2% on average.

Business travel was the worst hit by a lowered level of travel. 23% less visits were made by UK residents abroad for business purposes in 2009 compared to the previous year. 19% fewer visits were made into the UK from abroad.

There was a drop of 15% in visits made from the UK abroad for holiday reasons and a drop of 6.5% for visiting friends and relatives.

For visitors to the UK, London remains the most popular city according to the ONS; this is followed by Edinburgh, Manchester, Birmingham, Glasgow, Liverpool, Bristol, Oxford and Cambridge.

One in four of the top 100 online retailers are travel companies according to a recent survey.

Internet research company Experian’s Hitwise Hot 100 is an annual survey that rates websites by how many visitors they attract. This year, it showed that the budget airlines had by far the most popular travel-related websites.

EasyJet was the most hit upon travel website, claiming 10th position in the Hitwise league table, Ryanair wasn’t far off in 12th place. British Airways only entered the league at 32nd and Jet2 was 62nd, Flybe 71st, bmibaby 72nd and Virgin Atlantic 73rd. 

Four years ago only 23 of the top 50 e-retailers had high street shops, this year the number has grown to 33 showing that although much has been written about the negative impact of internet retail on the high street, there are still many companies investing in stores.