When you book your summer holiday, the last thing you want is to be fearing the worst.
And with the Iran war raging on, and the jet fuel crisis sparking fears about flight cancellations in the coming months, it’s an understandably stressful time for Brits looking to book an upcoming trip.
But there are plenty of destinations that are most likely to be safe – and one travel industry boss has weighed in on where travellers are heading, and the unlikely reasons why.
Alessandro Petazzi, CEO of travel package holiday and hotel provider Lastminute.com, spoke to the Daily Mail about the ongoing impact of the Iran war – as well as the current travel landscape.
Alessandro said: ‘We’re not seeing a change in the desire to travel, so people are still searching a lot for travels. But they are getting their information on Google, on ChatGPT, and similar chatbots.
‘People are also progressively getting inspiration from AI chatbots as well.
‘Everyone is looking for off-the-beaten-path travels. Something that surprises them. And so, obviously, if you’re using a chatbot, you can ask them, “Give me a suggestion that you think I’m going to like, and that’s not the usual suspect.”
‘That happens in the inspiration phase. So it’s important for us to be able to be there to also serve these new travel trends.’
Alessandro Petazzi, CEO of lastminute.com, spoke about the boom of Eastern Europe
Alessandro explained that the company is seeing is an increase in European city breaks – ‘either the smaller cities, like Krakow, Gdansk, and so forth, or the European capital cities such as Berlin and Copenhagen.
‘But we’re also seeing other capital cities. I think that, especially now, there is a perception that people feel a European destination is very safe – and a European capital city is even safer.
‘In the wake of whatever possible risk might be there, that is perceived as a very, very safe option.
‘Most of our business is Europeans traveling across Europe, and we can definitely say that’s as safe a haven as there is one.’
Plus, Alessandro adds, the region has a track record of staying safe.
He said: ‘It has also been, historically, that whatever happens in, I would say, “hot areas” of the world, Europe has always been quite insulated from all of that.’
According to Lastminute.com’s latest Travel Horizons Report, Baltic bookings were among the rising stars of 2025 – and that’s not set to change anytime soon.
Eastern Europe saw the most growth in the city escape market, thanks to Gdansk (+97 per cent) and beautiful Bucharest (+71 per cent), with Kraków (+58 per cent) and Riga (+40 per cent) also increasing in popularity over the last year.
Cities such as Gdansk in Poland have soared in popularity as of late
Similarly, other destinations including Riga, Latvia have seen more bookings
This reflects a growing focus on experiences, affordability, and less-crowded escapes, seeing travellers turn to quiet climbers or more affordable spots.
Another factor boosting the popularity of Eastern Europe is new routes from low-cost airlines.
Alessandro explains: ‘I think a lot of that has to do with low-cost airlines opening new routes, so that people start saying, “you know what, there’s a new, relatively cheap flight from London or Manchester to Gdansk or Krakow, let me take a look.”‘
The numbers back up his argument, too – currently, flights from London to Gdansk start from £27.98 with Wizz Air, and from Manchester to Poznan from just £15 with Ryanair.
Plus, in early 2026, the evolving situation in the Middle East is reshaping destination choices across Europe, with travellers gravitating towards familiar and trusted favourites.
British holidaymakers have been leaning into major European cities such as Rome, Amsterdam and Paris, with sunshine in Spain accounting for five of the top 10 fastest-growing destinations, led by Mallorca.
Regarding March 2026 bookings for summer 2026 (June-August), in comparison to the previous year, the route seeing the biggest boost from the UK is to Copenhagen, Denmark.
In terms of other changes to travel as the Iran war rages on, lastminute.com has noted no change in the desire to travel – and no overall major decrease in holiday bookings.
But people are waiting longer to book, ‘because they want to have a bit more certainty’, according to Alessandro.
As for the current rise in jet fuel prices, Alessandro is optimistic: ‘I always tell my colleagues that we should worry about the things that we can control and work on them proactively in order to minimise our risk.
‘We consider the situation, and rather than sitting on our chairs and saying, oh, maybe we should worry about that, what we’ve done is say, what is it that people want in this phase? They want peace of mind.
‘They want the certainty that if something happens, they can get a refund, they can cancel with no problems. So we focus on that.
‘Let’s focus on directing our marketing money to destinations that people like and that people perceive as safe right now.
‘Let’s make sure that we prioritise refundable rates for hotels. Let’s make sure that we discuss with our hotel partners to make sure they give us more access to their refundable rates, and that they reduce the difference of pricing between non-refundable and refundable rates.
‘Rather than worry, we are considering the various scenarios and proactively managing the potentially risky ones to make sure that we reduce our own risk profile and do something that is good for our customers.’
More Brits are also heading to the Danish capital, Copenhagen
And that’s exactly what Lastminute.com is doing.
Alessandro concludes: ‘The way for us to to be ready for whatever happens is to potentially plan for the worst, but then also make sure that we help people, even in a scenario which is maybe not necessarily the worst-case scenario.
‘We always monitor the situation. We work with our partners, the airlines, the hotels, and we make sure that we do whatever we can to make sure that customers can really enjoy and book their holidays with peace of mind – and if something happens, we’re there to support.
‘In the travel industry, we’ve become quite resilient over time. We had, back in the day, the volcano in Iceland, which disrupted European flights, and then we have COVID, of course.
‘Over these challenges and tribulations, we got better in managing the unexpected, and this is what we’re doing.
‘This is nothing compared to the COVID situation. Nothing.’
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