01 Oct
2018

ABTA is the most trusted travel scheme among UK consumers

ABTA – The Travel Association is the UK’s most trusted travel scheme among members of the public, finds new independent research*.
 

Respondents were asked to rank the travel organisations they are most confident in, on a scale of 1 to 4 (1 being most confident), with ABTA ranked no.1 on 58% of occasions, 12% above the next most trusted organisation, ATOL (46%) and almost three times more than Trustpilot (20%).

 

This strong confidence in the ABTA brand is reflected in people’s attitudes when booking a holiday. Three quarters of people (75%) say they feel more confident booking with a travel company that is a Member of ABTA. Three in four (74%) people expect their travel company to be a Member of ABTA and 62% think less positively of travel companies who are not Members.

 

Trust in ABTA is also supported by strong brand recognition – with 72% of people saying they recognise the ABTA logo, more than any other travel scheme.

 

When asked which values they most associate with ABTA, the top responses were experts, confidence, reliable, safe, reassuring and quality, all of which were rated more than 7 out of 10. Financial protection, the help and advice ABTA provides in a crisis and ABTA’s Code of Conduct are the ABTA services people value the most. All three are rated as ‘essential’ by more than 60% of respondents.

 

Victoria Bacon, ABTA Director of Brand and Business Development, said:

 

“At a time when consumer trust in business has fallen** consumers remain very confident in ABTA and our values as an organisation. They trust us above any other travel scheme and feel much more confident when booking with an ABTA Member. Holidaymakers strongly rate our expertise and see us as reliable and reassuring, which is really important at a time of such uncertainty.

 

“The ABTA badge continues to be an important distinguishing factor when people are looking for a travel company, giving those businesses who are an ABTA Member a clear competitive advantage over those who aren’t.”

 

Notes to editors

*Consumer research was conducted by Arkenford Ltd (www.arkenford.co.uk) who specialise in leisure and tourism market research. The ABTA Consumer Trends survey generated responses from a nationally representative sample of 2,001 consumers using an online research methodology and related to holiday booking habits in the 12 months to August 2018. Fieldwork was conducted between the end of July and beginning of August 2018.
**Edelman’s 2018 Trust Barometer shows trust in business fell to 43 percent in the year.