The tourist companies are getting ready for the summer as you read this. There are people in hotels building extensions so that more customers can stay with them. There are airline firms planning special offers so that people will fly with them instead of another company. There are managers of tourist attractions looking for and training new workers for the summer (we call this 'seasonal work'). And of course there are people booking holidays.

Then there are the people who never plan anything in advance. A lot of these are people who are waiting for a last-minute special offer. Package tour companies often have extra places that nobody had bought just a day or two before their holiday trip starts. They can make a little bit more money by selling these to people cheaply. Sometimes the offer is "If you have your suitcase packed already and can get to the airport in the next three hours, you can phone us to buy it". Of course these are not for people who have set their heart on a very specific place, but they are a good way of saving money.

Others simply don't go away at all. This doesn't mean that they don't have a holiday, but that they don't spend more than a day anywhere else. Going away for the day is called a day-trip. The best places to go on a day-trip are near enough so that you don't spend all day travelling, and far enough away to be a place you haven't seen before. How many people go to these every day depends on the weather more than anything else. After all, not many people would say "Look at this terrible weather. It's pouring with rain and the wind is blowing like a hurricane. Let's go out somewhere".

A holiday is for many people the opportunity to stop doing anything. There are a lot of these people in the first group. So long as the hotel is somewhere hot, and comfortable to stay in, the only other request to the holiday company is "Now leave me in peace". However, some people can never relax when they are thinking about how much money their holiday has cost them. This sort of cost-cutter and penny-counter might be at the same breakfast table at the hotel. Conversation is similar to "Oh, so you paid over a thousand for this holiday, did you? We got ours for three hundred by booking at the last minute!".

The last-minute people sometimes join the day-trippers when the weather at home is spectacular. Not long ago the UK had one of its hottest summers ever. People who had always had their holidays abroad decided to stay at home and look for other things to do (often this meant finding the nearest beach). The British tourist industry had a good summer that year!

Glossary

an extension dobudówka

in advance z góry

a package tour wycieczka zorganizowana

a suitcase walizka

a request prośba

Things people do on holiday

There are nine things in the wordsearch that people do on holiday for fun. There is one more that might happen which isn't fun. They are easy to find: just look for words and phrases with 'ing' in them.

D J O K E Q V V Q R U R M C A U B U U B S P G I C

L B E I P A D W I F T R F A P L E H O P C V M X Y

V M Y F K X L L I S R J P T T O X D U Y D N V K F

P S W A T E R S K I I N G J S I A I C P S E D J Y

F F Z W B Z H A W G C T N S S I X L X H Z P G K Q

C N F M W I N E T A S T I N G Z I L N R Z V J G F

P Z Z A N O E V Z A L A V N O N B K M M R W O I H

P Q J G L S S E R U T C I P G N I K A T J I R C T

R G K S E L Q A Z J H D D K X M T B G S U U G Q N

M P J F C Z I A G Z I L A H P Y A C B B E N N S W

U R G I K E B N I L P O B P F T W R N U U B V B G

Q Q O L K N G J G X M K U B R Z Q K K M L E O Q I