NORTH Shropshire travelling agencies have seen a record sale of luxurious multi-generation family holidays with Hollywood A-lister, Russell Crowe tipping people off with the best destinations.

Hays Travel North West, that has branches in Oswestry and Shrewsbury, have reported that sales are up 30 per cent so far this month.

It seems like granny and grandad are the most frequent buyers as they dip into their savings to take their families on luxurious holidays.

Don Bircham, Managing Director of Hays Travel North West, said: "These high value bookings to quality destinations are often being funded by grandparents who want to share a holiday with their sons and daughters and their children.

"They’re still fit and healthy and probably thinking they’d rather spend it on a once-in-a-lifetime experience they can enjoy together with their whole family than possibly seeing it go on care home fees in a few years time."

He added that one couple has spent over £40,000 to take their whole family away, while they had a number of sales worth at least £25,000-plus.

The top Mediterranean destination for holidaymakers is Turkey, after Gladiator star Russell Crowe praised its beauty on Twitter.

After early summer reports of major issues at airports, with delays cause by a shortage of baggage handling staff, the holiday sales for August seem to be booming.

Don said: "This August has been phenomenally busy with all the usual hotspots in high demand but the most popular this year has been Turkey which has so much to offer beyond a beach holiday and where the Turkish lira offers such fantastic value as well.

"The whole industry is really taking off again, people have had to stay at home for the last two years because of the pandemic and now they’re keen to travel again."

A frequent flyer himself, Don, explains that the airport issues have been resolved, and that they have been able to recruit more people in time.

The biggest holiday hotspots are Florida, Maldives, the Caribbean, Australia and New Zealand and on the longer haul flights many are upgrading from economy to business class.

Don added: "We’re expecting it to stay busy through September and October when couples like to go away and then we’re expecting another boom in January when the cold weather and long dark nights get people thinking about sunshine again."