Celebrity hikers lead boom in holiday walking tours by women

Theresa May famously enjoys a hiking break: PA

Celebrities who keep fit by hiking in the Hollywood hills are being credited with a rise in the popularity of walking holidays.

Young women, who might have been put off by “trail poles” as sported by keen trekker Theresa May, have been inspired by the likes Kendall Jenner, Gigi Hadid and Taylor Swift to book package adventure holidays.

Stars including Cheryl Cole, Fearne Cotton and Alesha Dixon, who climbed Mount Kilimanjaro, and singer Katy Perry, who hiked Peru’s Machu Picchu are also encouraging more to shun the beach.

According to the Association of Independent Tour Operators (AITO) 54 per cent of 25,000 respondents said they were interested in walking on holiday — 57 per cent of which were women and 42 per cent men.

For the 18-24 and 25-34 age groups, women were three times more likely to want to walk on holiday than men, which dipped slightly to twice as likely for those aged 35-44 and 45-54. The AITO Travel Insights research revealed walking as the third most popular type of holiday behind city breaks and culture tours.

In the first quarter, one AITO-listed tour provider saw a 39 per cent increase in walking tour bookings compared with the same period last year.

AITO head Kate Kenward said: “The big surge for young people aged 25-35 is for walking holidays and things like that. Walking, adventuring, anything that is not sitting on the beach. I think it is to do with wellness and people being more interested in their health.”

She said nature-related tours with a focus on sustainability had also jumped from 16 per cent of customers interested in booking in 2015 to 50 per cent last year. “It is the same as the walking and adventure tours,” she said. “Just anything that is not just people lying on a beach.”

Figures from Mintel show package holiday sales have grown twice as fast as independent bookings over the past five years, rising 20 per cent in total. Thomas Cook bookings for all inclusive were 10 per cent up year-on-year and were 63 per cent of the company’s bookings.