UK travel firms have claimed that sunny Spain is the unrivalled winter holiday destination for Brits.

The Association of British Travel Agents (ABTA) said that destinations with guaranteed sunshine like Spain and the Canary Islands were top choices for the reams of UK yuletide holidaymakers.

A poll of 1,000 workers by Lastminute.com found that 71 per cent still have more than half of holiday entitlements left by the year end, sparking ample Christmas trips.

Frances Tuke, a spokesperson for ABTA, said that Iberian locations were a seasonal favourite because yuletide holidaymakers "tend to be either winter sun or skiing".

"Because of the huge numbers of people who have holiday homes in Spain, that is our top destination," she added.

All-year-round tourism adds to the foreign interest of overseas property buyers in top Iberian resorts, keeping areas like the Costa del Sol and the Costa Blanca booming.