• Brits’ love affair with the package holiday continues but looks very different from package breaks of the 70s
• Spain remains the top spot for UK holidaymakers while visits to Mexico are up by 3500% since 1994
• Search for the authentic now preferred to the ‘home-from-home’ holiday

New analysis from ABTA – The Travel Association examines people’s travel habits over the last four decades and finds that while UK travellers remain firmly committed to package holidays¹ – the type of trip, destination and how they holiday has changed significantly.

Package holidays continue to dominate the overseas UK holiday market, despite the emergence of other types of travel, with half of the holidays² people take each year being package breaks – a figure that has held steady since 2014. However, the first package holidays of the past are a far cry from some of the package breaks people are taking today.  

Travel companies have responded to holidaymakers’ changing preferences – offering packages that include tailor made trips, tours that take people off the beaten track, adventure holidays, river and ocean cruises, well-being breaks and all-inclusives. Holidaymakers also have the chance to personalise their package – upgrading transfers, choosing their own room and even booking a specific sun lounger. 

Interviews with ABTA Members³ reveal customers now often want to be the first to visit a destination or particular resort, whereas back in the 1970s many people chose a holiday location based on where their friends or family had been. 

Similarly, a package holiday was often sold with the promise of a ‘home-from-home’ – the UK but with better weather – but many UK holidaymakers are now keen to experience the best of the local culture. 

Travel experts also highlight that – as people have become more seasoned travellers and the UK restaurant scene offers a wider range of cuisines – trends of the past such as packing tea bags, cereal, cleaning products and tinned food for their holiday abroad, as well as confusing prosciutto for raw bacon, have become a lot less common! Today’s holidaymaker is more likely to have a suitcase full of tech than tins, as travellers head off on their holidays equipped with cameras, tablets and high-end headphones.

Changing destinations
ABTA’s new analysis of the latest International Passenger Survey (IPS) air travel figures made by holidaymakers⁴ also shows the diversification of destinations people are visiting. While there is still a strong market for traditional package holiday destinations – almost 25 million visits were made to Spain, France, Italy, Portugal, Greece, Cyprus and Malta combined last year, a big increase from just over 13 million in 1994⁵ – today’s holidaymakers are branching out and going further afield. 

UK holidaymaker visits to Mexico in 1994 stood at 18,778 whereas in 2018 visits were up by 3500% to 676,734, that’s more than the number of visits to Malta (559,677). 

Increased capacity in the airline industry and more fuel-efficient aircraft have put long-haul trips within reach of more UK travellers. 

Closer to home, destinations that have seen an increase in popularity include Bulgaria and Croatia. Trips to Bulgaria have doubled since 1994⁶ and it looks set to continue to increase its share of visitors – with bookings for summer 2019 up 16% on last year⁷. 

Many ABTA experts list the Balearics, Italian Riviera, Belgium (specifically Blankenberge), Austria, Switzerland and Germany as their most booked destinations when package holidays first became popular.

Mark Tanzer, Chief Executive of ABTA – The Travel Association said:

“The UK continues to be a nation in love with the foreign holiday as tens of millions of people head abroad each year, with package holidays still dominating a large proportion of the travel market. But how we’re holidaying now is quite different compared to the package breaks of the 1970s.

“Holidaymakers’ tastes are continually evolving, and the travel industry is adapting to the changing demands of customers; whether you want a two week cruise around the Caribbean, a cultural city break to Cadiz, a tailor-made trip to Mexico or seven days in the Costa del Sol, all of these options can be provided via a package holiday. 

“With the introduction of the new Package Travel Regulations last year, more travel arrangements this summer are likely to be package holidays – offering customers the best form of protection.  

“If you haven’t arranged your summer holiday this year, now is a good time to explore your options and book – whether that’s visiting a popular destination or somewhere new – holidaymakers will find that there are still good value breaks available this summer.” 

Holidaymakers who have booked with an ABTA Member will have access to the support, protection and expertise provided by ABTA so people can travel with confidence. You can find an ABTA Member by visiting abta.com/findamember.

Examples from ABTA Members of customers over the years on their package holidays 

• While staying in a high-end hotel in Italy one guest mistook prosciutto for raw bacon at the buffet and called their travel agent to complain. 
• A customer who arrived for a holiday to Spain called their travel rep on the emergency number in the middle of the night to complain that their hotel had too many Spanish people, and later in the holiday complained the restaurants were also ‘too Spanish’. 
• One family brought an entire suitcase filled with food on their self-catering trip, only to be upgraded to half board, however they still insisted on flying back with all of their food. 
• One agent recalls when hotels used to provide curtain rails in rooms for young couples, to protect their modesty (and to adhere to their parents’ wishes). 
• Holidaymakers were also relaxed about sun protection, with many using olive oil to ensure they returned with a good tan.

For further information, contact:

ABTA press office, press@abta.co.uk or 020 3117 0596

Out of Hours:  Contact the Duty Press Officer via landline: 020 3693 0183
Web: www.abta.com
Twitter: @ABTAtravel

ABTA spokespeople, ABTA Members and customer case studies are available on request

Notes to editors
¹ A package holiday is the combination of two or more travel services from transport, accommodation, car hire and tourist services – most commonly transport and accommodation – and bought as a single transaction. It is not what you do or where you go which makes a holiday a package, rather what’s included in it and how it is booked. Package holidays offers the best level of protection. abta.com/newpackagetravelregulations 

² ABTA Holiday Habits report 2018. abta.com/holidayhabits2018

³ Insight and evidence was provided by ABTA Members include: TUI, Thomas Cook, G Adventures, Premier Travel, Midcounties Co-operative Travel, Hays Travel, Beaver Travel in Radlett, Barrhead Travel, Atkins Travel/Prestige Holidays, Ian Dickson Travel, Fred. Olsen Cruise Lines, Strachan Travel, Sam Smith Travel, Travel Bureau, Regent Travel, Elegant Resorts and Buxton Centre for Contemporary Hospitality & Tourism. ABTA also carried out in-depth interviews with travel agents who have a combined experience of 380 years between them of working in the travel industry over the last forty years.

^4,6 ABTA analysed the International Passenger Survey (IPS) air travel figures for the purpose of a holiday (excluding visits for Business, Visiting friends or relatives or Miscellaneous) from the ONS from 1994 (the first set of full online data available) to 2018 (the most recent set of figures), with three-year intervals, focusing on 16 of the most popular destinations for UK holidaymakers. Visitor numbers are survey estimates and are subject to sampling errors.

The tables below show the approximate number of visits for a holiday made to each destination by air travel in 1994 and 2018. It is worth noting that there are fluctuations of visitor numbers in years between, often in response to external events. 

 

1994 International Passenger Survey (IPS) holiday air travel figures
Popularity	Destination	Number of visitors
1	Spain	6,736,632
2	Greece	2,064,501
3	USA	1,537,453
4	France	1,103,095
5	Portugal	1,035,815
6	Italy	799,843
7	Turkey	642,293
8	Malta	430,775
9	Tunisia	259,468
10	Other Caribbean	212,856
11	Bulgaria	162,653
12	Egypt	96,806
13	Jamaica	83,492
14	Barbados	75,284
15	Mexico	18,778
16	Croatia	4,757

 

2018 International Passenger Survey (IPS) holiday air travel figures
Popularity	Destination	Number of visitors	1994 popularity
1	Spain	13,615,245	1
2	Italy	2,896,158	6
3	Portugal	2,295,961	5
4	Greece	2,245,984	2
5	France	2,220,545	4
6	USA	2,205,885	3
7	Turkey	1,053,742	7
8	Mexico	676,734	15
9	Malta	559,677	8
10	Croatia	486,162	16
11	Other Caribbean	475,664	10
12	Bulgaria	341,244	11
13	Jamaica	180,082	13
14	Tunisia	139,444	9
15	Egypt	118,482	12
16	Barbados	92,280	14

⁵ 1994 International Passenger Survey (IPS) air holiday travel figures: 13,061,058 (approximate) and 2018 International Passenger Survey (IPS) air holiday travel figures: 24,452,700 (approximate).

⁷ Data sourced from GfK’s Travel Insights service April 2019. Travel Insights is a point of sale service measuring transactional booking data from tour operators and travel agents for outbound leisure travel from the UK.

About ABTA
ABTA has been a trusted travel brand for over 65 years. Our purpose is to help our Members to grow their businesses successfully and sustainably, and to help their customers travel with confidence. 

The ABTA brand stands for support, protection and expertise. This means consumers have confidence in ABTA and a strong trust in ABTA Members. These qualities are core to us as they ensure that holidaymakers remain confident in the holiday products that they buy from our Members. 

We help our Members and their customers navigate through today's changing travel landscape by raising standards in the industry; offering schemes of financial protection; providing an independent complaints resolution service should something go wrong; giving guidance on issues from sustainability to health and safety and by presenting a united voice to government to ensure the industry and the public get a fair deal.

ABTA has around 1,200 Members, with a combined annual UK turnover of £38 billion. For more details about what we do, what being an ABTA Member means and how we help the British public travel with confidence visit www.abta.com.