OVER 80 PER CENT OF HOLIDAYMAKERS TO HOLIDAY ABROAD AGAIN NEXT YEAR
Date published: 06 October 2008Foreign travel for 2009 is very much on the radar for the majority who holiday overseas, with 83 per cent - who have been on a recent overseas holiday are planning to take another one in the next 12 months.
The ABTA Holiday Survey conducted by Ipsos MORI in the first two weeks of September has also found that because of the current economic situation 47 per cent will not adjust their travel plans because of the economic situation. In addition 24 per cent are still undecided.
Forty six per cent of respondents said that the destinations they plan to go to and the type of holiday they choose will be unaffected by the money markets, while 50 per cent state they will not be cutting back on the length of their holidays.
But while just under four in ten (39 per cent) have said that they will not plan to reduce the number of holidays they take, a similar proportion (38 per cent) have stated that they do think that they will take less holidays next year. This year, according to the survey, the numbers of those taking just one holiday abroad was 42 per cent, while 30 per cent took three or more holidays during the last 12 months.
Thirty five per cent revealed that the current economic situation will affect the destination they go to. As the euro has been very strong against sterling this year, only 46 per cent say that they are planning to holiday in Western Europe, as opposed to the 65 per cent of travellers who have visited western Europe in 2008 and 69 per cent who visited in 2007. Source
As mentioned 50 per cent did not believe the economic downturn would affect the duration of their holidays. This year, 31 per cent of respondents said that their last holiday was of 11-14 night holidays, 31 per cent said they had taken a 5-7 night long holiday, while short breaks of 1-4 nights were slightly more popular at 14 per cent, than the 8-10 night duration - of which only 11 per cent said they had been on.
For further information
Sean Tipton, Communications Officer, tel: 020 7307 1902/1900Frances Tuke, Public Relations Manager, tel: 020 7307 1903/1900
Casia Zajac, Head of Communications, tel: 020 7307 1987
Mobile: 07894 073010
Out of Hours: Contact the Duty Press Officer via pager: 07659 190987
E-mail: press@abta.co.uk
Web: www.abta.com
Notes to editors
This press release refers to Q2, Q3, Q4, Q5a, Q5b.
ABTA commissioned MORI to conduct the 2008 British Holiday Survey. Ipsos MORI interviewed 702 respondents, by telephone using a Random Digit Dial method, between 2 and 14 September 2008. All respondents had to either have been on or booked an overseas holiday during the last 12 months to qualify to take part. Data has been weighed on gender, age, social class and region to reflect the GB population as a whole.
Where results do not add up to 100%, this is due to multiple response answers, computer rounding or the exclusion of don’t know/not stated answers.
Some ABTA staff will be at the Travel Convention in Gran Canaria, but staff there and in the UK are available for interviews.
ISDN Gran Canaria: +34 928 128 037
ISDN UK: 020 7 323 1069
ABTA was founded in 1950 and currently has over 1,500 members with 6,000 outlets. Members include travel agents, tour operators and support services right across the spectrum from small family-owned businesses to the largest tour operators.
ABTA is the largest travel association in the UK and its members provide 90% of the foreign package holidays in the UK as well as selling millions of independent travel arrangements.
As part of its comprehensive package of services to members, ABTA, as a non-party political organisation, also provides an effective voice to represent the interests of its Members to government and key opinion formers at the highest levels. In the UK, these include, government ministers, constituency MPs, Select Committee members, senior civil servants and members of the political opposition parties in both Westminster and the devolved administrations in Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland.
In Europe, ABTA is forming close ties with members of the European Parliament, the European Commission and staff within the Director Generals’ Secretariats. ABTA works in partnership with ECTAA (the European grouping of travel agents and tour operators’ associations) to lobby on interests relevant to its Members.
