The unusually hot summer has seen holiday bookings fall an average 6%, according to new figures from travel operator organisation ANVR and research agency GFD.

The biggest fall is in self-drive holidays to France, Germany and Italy which are down 18%. Holidays involving air travel also dropped, by 2.5%.

A spokesman for ANVR told the Algemeen Dagblad tour operators have been seeing a move towards last-minute bookings for several years. ‘And if the weather suddenly turns nice, people prefer to stay at home,’ he said.