What Does Jet2 Holiday Mean? The Viral TikTok Trend Explained
If you’ve been scrolling TikTok lately, chances are you’ve stumbled across a cheerful voice declaring: “Nothing beats a Jet2 holiday”. The line is upbeat, optimistic and full of sunshine energy until you realize it’s usually playing over complete chaos. From videos of rain-soaked beach trips to clips of animals ruining a family vacation, this sound has taken over TikTok in a way that no one, not even Jet2 itself, could have predicted.
So, what exactly is the Jet2 Holiday meme? Why has it exploded into one of TikTok’s most popular sounds? And what does it say about how travel and humor collide online?
Where Did the Jet2 Holiday Sound Come From?
To understand the meme, you first need to know Jet2. It’s a British low-cost airline and holiday company that offers affordable travel packages to sunny destinations across Europe. In late 2022, they launched a glossy advertising campaign using the hit Jess Glynne track “Hold My Hand”. The ad featured happy families splashing in pools, couples sipping cocktails and kids running along the beach. All these beautiful scenes were tied together with a warm voiceover saying: “Nothing beats a Jet2 holiday”.
At the time, it was just another airline ad. But in the world of TikTok, even a corporate commercial can be reborn as comedy gold.
How Did Jet2 Holiday Become a TikTok Meme?
By early 2024, TikTok users had discovered the Jet2 ad and decided it was too funny not to remix. Instead of using the sound over glamorous beach montages, they started pairing it with the exact opposite, which were clips of vacations gone wrong in funny ways.
Think along the lines of:
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A hotel room flooding with water.
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A camel spitting at a tourist in Egypt.
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A family arguing by the pool in Spain.
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A barbecue ruined by sudden rain.
The cheerful jingle and tagline of “Nothing beats a Jet2 holiday” overlaid on pure disaster creates perfect irony. I personally see it as TikTok humor at its finest. You basically have a case of an upbeat sound clashing with messy reality in way that is more often than not very hilarious.
Why Did It Explode in Popularity?
There are a few reasons this trend blew up. These are my personal opinions:
1. Relatable Travel Chaos
Most of us have been on a holiday where things didn’t go as planned. Bad weather, delayed flights, disappointing hotels. All these mishaps happen to us on holidays from time to time. Seeing those moments paired with a happy jingle feels instantly relatable.
2. The Power of Contrast
The truth about comedy is that it more often than not comes from contrast. In this case, the joyful advert voiceover plays over absolute mayhem. That gap between expectation and reality is what makes people laugh.
3. A Catchy, Shareable Sound
Jess Glynne’s Hold My Hand is already a feel-good tune. So all you need to do is just add a simple and catchy tagline and you have yourself the perfect TikTok sound that people can use again and again.
4. The Brand Leaned Into It
Unlike some companies that shy away from memes, Jet2 embraced it wholeheartedly. They even launched a TikTok challenge using the sound, offering holiday vouchers to participants. I found this to be a very smart move. Jess Glynne herself even joined in along with the original voiceover artist also recreated the line. This action made cemented the Jet2 Holiday’s place in meme culture.
Who is the voice behind Jet2 Holiday Advert?
One of the questions I kept seeing in the comments section when the Jet2 Holiday meme blew up was: “Whose voice is that?” That warm, upbeat voice saying “Nothing beats a Jet2 holiday” belongs to Zoë Lister, a British actress and writer.
Zoë is best known for her role as Zoe Carpenter in Channel 4’s popular soap opera titled Hollyoaks. She later shifted into television writing, working on a number of shows including The Lodge. It was in 2019, when she became the voice of Jet2’s advertising campaigns.
What’s fascinating is how her voiceover, originally meant for a straightforward travel advert, took on a completely new life years later. By 2025, thanks to TikTok, that one line she delivered in the recording booth was being replayed millions of times across chaotic holiday clips and internet memes.
It’s honestly strange how unpredictable the digital world can be. A single line from a brand campaign became part of pop culture and one of TikTok’s biggest viral sounds.
In 2025, Zoë Lister took to social media to express her surprise at the global success of the advert.
The Numbers actually Don’t Lie
The Jet2 holiday trend went beyond just a passing joke into something extremely massive.
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By mid-2025, the audio had been used in over 1.3 million TikTok videos.
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The hashtag #NothingBeatsAJet2Holiday climbed past 2 million uses.
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Even mainstream media like The Guardian and Business Insider covered its viral success.
It’s rare for a piece of advertising to become such a cultural phenomenon, but the Jet2 campaign pulled it off (intentionally and unintentionally).
The Deeper Meaning Behind the Jet2 Holiday Meme
Yes, it’s funny. But the Jet2 holiday meme also says something about how we experience travel in the social media age.
Travel is often marketed as “perfect”. So in our eyes when we think of travel, we see things like sunshine, cocktails, and happy families. But in reality, things often go wrong. TikTok has become a space where travelers laugh about those imperfect moments. Instead of hiding the chaos, people have a tendency of celebrating it. The Jet2 sound became the perfect way to highlight those messy realities of travel while keeping the humor light.
In a way, the meme makes travel feel more authentic. I think it lets us know that holidays aren’t just picture-perfect Instagram shots. Holidays come with unpredictable stuff – some good and some bad.
My Take as a Travel Creator
As someone who has been to dozens of countries, I can tell you this: no trip ever goes 100% according to plan. I’ve had flights delayed for hours, hotels that didn’t look like the pictures, and food experiences that went completely sideways.
That’s why I think this trend resonates so much. It captures the truth of travel. No matter how much you plan, there’s always a chance things will go wrong. And when they do, sometimes the best thing you can do is laugh.
When I first saw the meme, I thought: “This is every traveler’s inside joke”. We’ve all been there and TikTok as usual has just given us the soundtrack to laugh about it.
Should Jet2 Be Happy About This?
There’s been some debate about whether the meme is good or bad for Jet2’s brand. After all, the tagline is being used to highlight travel disasters and not dream vacations.
But here’s what I think: this meme has given Jet2 more publicity than any standard TV ad could. Millions of people who had never even heard of Jet2 before now know the name. And in a crowded airline industry, brand awareness is priceless. In my view, Jet2 has won big. Instead of fighting the meme, they’ve embraced it and honestly that’s the smartest move they could make.
