TRAVEL sales soared in the lead-up to Christmas as people queued for festive getaways.

Thomas Cook, which has offices in Worcester, Bromsgrove and Kidderminster, said sales showed thousands of last-minute sunshine and skiing holidays had been booked.

The company reported an increase in year-on-year bookings of more than one million people.

Andrew Windsor, managing director for Thomas Cook Distribution, said there had been a surge in late bookings in recent weeks - a trend born out by the Worcester office.

"We've been busy," said Victoria Blandford, deputy manager of the Thomas Cook office in the High Street.

"The choice of holiday has been quite mixed really - people are enquiring about all destinations."

Miss Blandford said consumer confidence was "coming back" following the events of September 11.

Nationally, Thomas Cook's ski bookings were up 12 per cent on last year with Ski specialists Neilson reporting most resorts had completely sold out over Christmas and into the New Year.

JMC's flights to Lapland had also sold out, with more than 700 people booked to visit Santa.

Florida proved to be a real late sunshine favourite while the Caribbean was again the number one favourite for a long haul getaway, and in fact saw an 11 per cent increase in bookings on last year.

Closer to home, the Canary Islands were very popular, with the bonus of taking only a four-hour flight and spending Christmas Day relaxing on a beach.

Favourite city destinations over Christmas included Paris, Salzburg and Geneva, while New York was still attracting tourists looking for shopping bargains, with bookings to New York on a par with last year.

"It seems consumer confidence in foreign holidays has returned which is very encouraging for the whole travel industry," said Mr Windsor.

"Our initial predictions that customers would not be put off going on holiday seem to be holding true. We believe this to be a very positive sign of things to come."