Forget bankers’ bonuses – hairdressers’ holidays will be the envy of employees everywhere after a Black Country boss dug deep to reward staff.

Kevin Hollies, who is the owner of Jon Kevan Hair Design in Kingswinford, is jetting eight workers out to Florida in the USA for a sun-soaked break at Walt Disney World Resort in Orlando.

He has shelled out £4,000 to take the party of 14, including partners, to his villa.

The 59-year-old father-of-two, whose elder daughter 24-year-old Sadie is a receptionist at the Market Street hairdressers and will be among the holiday party, said the trip was a ‘thank you’ for helping the business through a tough year. The group is due to fly out on Thursday.

Mr Hollies, from Hurcot near Stourbridge, said: “This year has been difficult for most people but we have weathered the storm and come out of it doing fairly well in the end.

“The holiday is a big thank you to the staff and while we are over there we will be planning for next year.

“It will be a bit of a working holiday, but a holiday as well. We will be well and truly ready, with tans of course, to take on 2010 with vigour and vitality.”

Mr Hollies has been to Florida several times.

He will celebrate his 60th birthday in America.

Birmingham Airport handled 136,400 passengers in the week running up to Christmas, with travel association Abta estimating that three million holidaymakers were heading abroad over the Christmas and New Year period.

Many were looking to take short New Year breaks to cities such as Paris, Amsterdam, Madrid, Dublin and New York.

At least two million people from Britain were flying out – around 1.5m of those from London Heathrow and 70,000 from East Midlands.