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This is ABTA’s eighth Holiday Habits report, revealing British holidaymakers’ booking behaviour in the last 12 months and their attitudes to planning and booking holidays in the 12 months ahead, both in the UK and abroad.
What our report tells us is that, at a time of unprecedented political turbulence and uncertainty, people are still firmly committed to taking holidays and they continue to be a spending priority. Government figures show that spending on overseas package holidays increased in 2017 and our findings reinforce this picture.
Our research shows that 60% of the population took a foreign holiday in the past 12 months – the highest figure since 2011 - with longer overseas breaks the beneficiary. They also show that people managed their budgets by reducing the number of UK breaks and shorter overseas breaks and by cutting back on their spending while they are away.
Looking more closely at package holidays, they have again proved popular in the past year, with value for money rising up the list of priorities for people choosing a package. Spain and Portugal have benefited from the resurgence of the package in recent years and with destinations like Turkey, Egypt and Tunisia – all of which offer excellent value for money – significantly up on bookings for summer 2018, package holidays look set to be popular again in the year ahead.