Haven Holidays is backing calls for the UK to launch a discounted holiday scheme to attract more customers in off-peak periods.

It is supporting the Family Holidays Association in its campaign for Britain to follow Spain in offering over-55s cheap holidays to boost business.

Spain is launching the European Senior Tourism (EST) scheme to offer the discounted packages between October and April, initially to Andalucia and the Balearics.

It aims to attract 50,000 visitors in its first phase, before being expanded to other regions.

A similar scheme aimed at Spanish pensioners attracted 1.2 million people to off-peak breaks at Spanish seaside destinations. 

Haven Holidays senior product manager Naomi Woodstock joined EST project director Elisa Domenech Alcover for a seminar organised by the FHA at the Best of Britain show on Wednesday.

Woodstock said France and Spain now had government-backed programmes which helped domestic tourism at the same time as helping poor families get a holiday, but Britain had nothing of the kind.

FHA director John McDonald said the UK was in danger of missing out, while other countries such as Spain and France used discounted breaks as a powerful economic stimulus.

McDonald said: “We are also well aware of the potential economic benefits of large-scale social tourism for the domestic trade. But Britain needs to catch up with the rest of Europe.”

He added that mobilising millions of families in the UK and Europe who could not afford a holiday this summer would massively boost spending on UK tourism.