FORMER Saints player Jamie Redknapp and his pop star wife Louise are credited with driving a 15 per cent rise in sales for holiday name Thomas Cook.

The chain which, together with its Going Places subsidiary has 14 Hampshire stores, reported a surge in summer 2010 holiday bookings in the last four weeks following a TV advertising campaign featuring the pair, with Turkey and Egypt in particularly high demand. It said UK average prices for summer breaks were up two per cent, while prices for the current winter season had risen six per cent.

Manny Fontenla-Novoa, group chief executive of Thomas Cook, said: “Bookings for the summer have improved significantly, marking a positive response to our marketing campaigns and highlighting the resilience of the summer holiday.”