The Association of British Travel Agents (ABTA) have estimated that nearly four million travellers will be heading abroad for Christmas with the coming weekend of 22/23rd December the busiest of the winter.
The travel trade organisation says that although the continuing economic downturn is a factor, Brits are continuing to travel and the ski market is reported to be generally 'up' thanks to good early season conditions and people booking to be sure of a White Christmas – which is looking increasingly unlikely in the UK as the big day draws closer.
The big four Alpine ski nations as well as Lapland are proving popular for Christmas, although unsurprisingly with the number of people going skiing less than a million through the entire season, the majority of the 4 million travellers are looking for winter sun with Dubai, Egypt and the Caribbean all popular.
"Christmas and New Year is traditionally the busiest time of year for the travel industry with millions of people heading off overseas for some winter sunshine or guaranteed snow.
According to ABTA, 200,000 people will cross the English Channel this Christmas as the gateway to Europe, with a further 210,000 people travelling by Eurostar through the tunnel.
EasyJet has said it will be flying over 90,000 passengers, up by 10% on the same date last year across 1190 scheduled flights on its busiest day of the period on Friday 21 December 2012 and 4898 flights carrying over 730,000 passengers in the week before Christmas.
Edinburgh airport is expecting an 8% rise in passengers on Christmas weekend to 104,000 people.