THE HAGUE, 28/11/06 - The number of winter holidays (1 November - 1 April) booked up until 12 November was 5 percent higher than in the same period last year. Holidays in the snow are particularly popular, travel sector association ANVR reported yesterday.

The number of winter sports holidays was 10 percent higher than last year, while bookings for exotic holidays by plane to distant locations rose by 6 percent. On the other hand, interest in non-skiing destinations within Europe fell by 7 percent.

The number of winter sports bookings for Austria and France rose by 12 percent for each country. Travelling by car to these two winter sports countries is still twice as common as travelling by bus, but the popularity of bus holidays is clearly increasing (+20 percent for Austria and +63 percent for France).

Many winter sun lovers choose Mexico (+56 percent), Thailand (+38 percent), Tunisia (+77 percent), Egypt (+6 percent) and Portugal (+7 percent). In spite of a 6 percent drop in bookings, Spain is still the favourite for the coming winter (market share 30 percent), well ahead of Turkey (-42 percent), which has a market share of 6 percent.