Sunny destinations like Bangkok, Orlando and Johannesburg were amongst Brits’ favourites for travel in January this year. The trend emerged from an analysis of over 600,000 flight searches conducted on our site momondo.com for departures during the first month of 2014.

Although the decidedly chilly New York occupied the number one spot, 17 of the 20 top searched destinations enjoy much warmer climes than Britain.

Heading up those popular sunny destinations was Bangkok. The Thai capital often serves as a gateway for travellers heading to more southerly beach spots like Phuket. Orlando and Johannesburg were the third and fourth most searched cities respectively.

According to Julie Pedersen, Spokesperson for momondo, the stats show Brits are beginning to prioritise long-haul travel during winter’s longest months.

“Brits are interested more and more in southerly and warmer destinations at this time of year. Destinations like Istanbul and Dubai in particular gained ground as winter destinations this year,” says Pedersen.

Top 20 destinations from all London airports

1) New York
2) Bangkok
3) Orlando
4) Johannesburg
5) Copenhagen
6) Los Angeles
7) Lisbon
8) Sydney
9) Dubai
10) Istanbul
11) Paris
12) Rio de Janeiro
13) Miami
14) Manila
15) Barcelona
16) Hong Kong
17) Las Vegas
18) Singapore
19) Rome
20) Malaga

Facts about analysis:

The list consists of data from more than 600,000 British searches, departing from all London airports, conducted in the period from 9 October to 31 December 2013, with departure in January 2014.