CURSE OF THE SUNSEEKERS: TOURISTS WHO DIED OR VANISHED IN BRIT HOLIDAY HOTSPOTS
Brits made more than 86.2 million visits abroad last year and while some are for business the majority are holidaymakers seeking a welcome break in the sun.
For most, these holidays happily end up incident free but for a small number they will never make the return flight to the UK. A handful of tourists go missing each year and tragically some of them are never found, leaving their heartbroken families unable to move on. Last year Brits visited Spain - including the holiday hotspots of the Balearic and Canary Islands - the most, accounting for 21% of all visits abroad; followed by France at 11%, Italy at 6% and Greece and all its islands - hits 5% of all visits.
Here we take a look at those who went seeking the sun but never came home:
Jay Slater - Tenerife - still missing
Jay Slater, 19, from Oswaldtwistle, Lancashire, has been missing on the holiday island since Monday, June 17. He was last seen by the owner of an Airbnb and it is thought he had missed the bus to reach friends in the south of the island, an area popular with British tourists after going to a music festival. The searches are ongoing.
Kevin Ainley - Tenerife - still missing
Kevin Ainley, was 24 years old, when he went missing 20 years ago this month. He was from Fleetwood, Lancashire, and moved to the tourist area of Playa de las Americas three months before disappearing. In a 2016 appeal, 12 years after he went missing his sister Gemma Brooke said the family was still "desperate for answers".
Billy Bennett - Tenerife - still missing
Billy Bennett, 18, vanished from his holiday in Tenerife in December 1985. The teen from Holborn, London, had planned to go to Tenerife with a friend but he dropped out at the last minute and Billy went ahead alone.
Billy’s friend flew out later with his girlfriend and claimed he seemed rather the “worse for wear” saying that he had lost all his money and had nowhere to stay.
Levi Davis - Spain - still missing
Celebrity X Factor star Levi Davis was 24 when he was last seen on CCTV leaving The Old Irish Pub in Barcelona on October 29, 2022. It was thought Levi could have drowned after sending his mum a video of himself from a boat shortly before he was last heard from.
Four days before he disappeared, a video was posted to his Instagram account in which he says: “My name is Levi Davis and my life is in danger.” He then spent 15 minutes talking about being blackmailed by unknown people who had taken pictures of him in “compromising positions”, claiming his life and his family’s life were under threat. Reports that Levi owed £100,000 to a Somalian gang also emerged in Catalan newspaper La Vanguardia.
Levi’s family – who hired a private investigator to try and solve the mystery of his disappearance – are still desperate for answers.
Ben Garland - Ibiza - still missing
Ben Garland, from Southwick, Wiltshire, went missing off the coast of northern Ibiza in January 2020, aged 24, while filming waves near Portinatx.
Dad Mark Garland, his family and some of Ben’s friends, spent two weeks with police during a major search operation that centred on the rocky coastal point where Ben had left his motorbike on 21 January, 2020. Hopes of finding him alive faded on the discovery of his watch on the coastline, then his jacket in the water.
Mr Garland believes his son was swept out to sea.
Anne Baillie - Fuerteventura - died
Anne Baillie, 73, vanished on June 7 last year after going for a morning walk. She was last seen at Riu Palace Tres Islas Hotel in Fuerteventura where she had been staying with her family. Fuerteventura Emergencias said in a statement on June 10: "The lifeless body of the English tourist last seen on June 7 has been located in the Corralejo Dunes Natural Park."
Peter Henley - Tenerife - died
Peter Henley, 50, from Dover, Kent, flew to the Canary Islands on December 6, 2012 and was due to return to the UK 12 days later but went missing. He was a keen walker and photographer, his relatives told reporters that he was not depressed and was looking forward to Christmas. His body was found near the coast on the north of the island on New Year's Eve the same year.
Michael Mosley - Symi - died
TV doctor and health guru Dr Michael Mosley vanished after leaving his wife and friends at Agios Nikolaos beach on the Greek island of Symi on June 5, 2024. A huge search was launched for the 67 year old celebrity including police, firefighters with drones, Greek Red Cross workers, divers, a search dog and a helicopter to find him in dangerous conditions and high temperatures.
His body was found by a bar manager after the island's mayor "saw something" by the fence of the bar and alerted staff. He was found around 30 minutes walk from the village of Pedi where he was last seen.
David Wolstenhulme - Serifos - missing
David Wolstenhulme, 69, disappeared on Friday, June 25, 2021 on the Greek island of Serifos. The Yorkshireman had travelled there with his wife Heide and set off ready for a morning hike on the day he mysteriously vanished.
He said that he would be back at the hotel by around 5pm - but he was never seen again. His wife believes he could have fallen down a sinkhole.
Steven Cook - Crete - died
Steven Cook, then 20, from Sandbach, Cheshire, disappeared on a night out with friends in Malia, Crete in 2005 - the first holiday he had taken without his family.
Despite pleas on both UK and Greek TV there was no news for more than a decade. His remains were eventually found in a well in 2017.
Roger Bainbridge - Antipaxos - missing
Roger Bainbridge disappeared on September 30, 2013, while holidaying on the tiny island of Antipaxos, Greece. He had made a day trip from the neighbouring island of Paxos, where his sister lived. The 67-year-old man, from Kendal, Cumbria, passed by other walkers on his hike.
A search party scoured the two square miles of the island but failed to uncover any traces of him. A month later, when Cumbria Police sent out two officers to help with the local search, still nothing was found.