Allianz Partners, which is an insurance specialist in the travel market, issued a press release this week that said:
- Over three-quarters (77%) of UK adults plan to take a summer holiday in 2025, down from 85% last year
- The number of people planning UK staycations is down by 21% (from 57% to 45%)
- Financial concerns are the leading reason for Brits opting not to travel this summer – 46% of those who forego holidays cite money as the reason why.
They added:
Tight household finances are a primary concern for those not planning to travel, with almost half (46%) citing a lack of funds as their reason for staying home.
Additionally, 22% feel that that travelling has become too expensive.
For those who are traveling, the average household expenditure on summer holidays is expected to reach £2,348, an increase of £425 compared to last year.
Europe remains the most popular destination (37% of all adults) followed by North America (8%) and Asia (6%).
Interestingly, they also noted:
Climate and Geopolitical Concerns
While costs dominate travelers' concerns, environmental and geopolitical issues are increasingly influencing travel decisions. Nearly half of British travelers (46%) express worries about extreme weather conditions, such as heatwaves, floods and wildfires. Additionally, 59% (+7 percentage points vs 2024) are now factoring environmental considerations when choosing a destination.
And they note
Sacrifices Made for Summer Holidays
Despite continued financial worries, the summer holiday remains sacred for most Brits, who cut back on other spending so they can afford to travel. Almost six in 10 (58%) plan to reduce leisure-related spending (e.g., restaurants, cultural activities, gym membership) to save for their holiday, while 54% will delay major purchases prioritise travel.
What does all this say? Three things, I suggest.
Firstly, times are more challenging than many data sources indicate.
Secondly, inequality is growing, as evidenced by lived experience.
Third, things are going to get worse.
If Rachel Reeves is not worried, she should be.
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We are going away abroad this year but only because we have cut back on other things.
I am semi-retired. My partner still works full time in the NHS and needs the break.
The cost of holidays is now astronomical, and we are going away off peak.
The maximisation of profit is all that matters
[I’m sorry to be one of those nitpickers who notices things like inconsistencies but you’re mixing the American and British versions of travellers and travelling. As a Brit I’d prefer you to use the proper spelling, of course].
OK…sorry – I copied a press release
And to be candid, if you wrote as much as I do, would you be so nitpicking?
I’m not by nature one of life’s fastest writers. If I wrote as much as you I’d have time to do nothing else.
🙂
However, yes. I think I might.
OK
Does Rachel Reeves have the self awareness and social skills to be worried?
I travel every year to Ireland to see family and friends. I have however started to use the Holyhead to Dublin route, even though my origin point is Edinburgh.
It’s a long day but I find it’s easier going by train/ferry. I also did go to Europe via ferry a few years ago and then used trains to get across Europe and all the way back to Edinburgh
The biggest issue is cost unfortunately, especially for travelling on trains within the UK. I would hope that the system could be renationalised here and in turn that could reduce prices for travellers.
I note for the Ireland trip it was almost half the cost for me and my son to go train/ferry return Edinburgh to Dublin versus cramming ourselves into the seats of Mr O’Leary’s jets at the airport.
That is an issue that tax needs to correct
Environmental concerns have changed our holiday plans this year. Usually we’d visit friends in Perth every 2nd year with them coming to the UK in alternate years. But for this year we’re going to reduce our energy miles by meeting halfway in the Emirates, with somewhere similarly located in the middle East (Bahrain possibly) on the horizon for next year.
That sounds like exactly the same airmiles to me.
Can’t you work that out?
I asked someone what corporations would do when people can no longer afford their products due to inequality. Their answer was that they would either pivot to rent seeking from a captive consumer base or become a premium service catering to the wealthy instead. I can see both these practices playing out in the business world as we speak.
Agreed
You can only do that to an extent, as this is the problem Henry Ford saw when he said his workers had to be paid enough to be able to buy a Ford car. Marx called this a crisis of accumulation, which basically means the capitalists have accumulated all the capital and there is insufficient demand for them to be able to sell their products. It is the same as a Monopoly game where the other players can’t afford to stay in the hotels. Monopoly actually shows the only solutions are more spending by the state (money from the bank to all the players), and a tax on the player that is winning (which could be redistributed to the other players, or just cancelled by being put back in the bank). In the real world severe crises often lead to a revolution.
Tim, do you think the people in charge of powerful corporations understand that? They do not see the systemic risk of inequality that they have a hand in; they simply pivot to alternative revenue streams. Luxury goods brands have never been more profitable. The fact that inequality will eventually lead to the collapse of most capitalist enterprises is of little concern to entities that must grow for their shareholders year after year. They will continue to consume their tails until they are dead.
Discussions with those “holidaying” in the med….. Far far too hot. Parts a spain+40c & that is a holiday? I will cycle in the ardennes tomorrow. 24c max and swim in very cold river. No people, just silence. Please all continue going to the med. Thanks.
Two kids in year 3 at university = staying at home a lot and I’m getting bored of baked beans.
Having said that, lots of days out, working on the house (when does it not ever need some work). I’m lucky that the Peak District is just 4 miles up the road.
🙂
and I am fortunate to live actually in the Peak District – good fresh air, wonderful scenery and so much to appreciate and enjoy -including of course St Ann’s Well in Buxton, which over the centuries has (almost)continuously provided the people of Buxton (and visitors) with a supply of its famous thermal waters. This water was denoted one of seven ‘Wonders of the Peak’ by Thomas Hobbes in 1678: “this cures the palsied members of the old, and cherishes the nerves grown stiff and cold”. The ‘Well’ is a geothermal spring that originates from rainwater that fell around 5000 years ago, and the water is warm at a constant temperature of 27 degrees Celsius due to the well being a natural thermal spring. People would come to Buxton to ‘take the waters’, much as people went to Bath. Nowadays people bring containers to the Well to stock up on the excellent water and there is no charge! Many people however prefer to holiday away from the UK, possibly for 2 reasons – weather and cost. I now enjoy my UK holidays involving no airports and no sea ports.
If I never see the inside of an airport again it will be too soon.
I’ve travelled this year, to Australia to live, permanently, to leave behind a Britain I have seen decay in 30 years of neoliberal sociopathy.
I haven’t set foot in an airport or any other port since 1990, have a missed anything? . I have, however, had some lovely camping and day trips, just not in recent times. I think the cost of living is really at an extreme level we’ve never seen before? I don’t remember quite the same struggles during Thatchers era, but I might be entirely wrong with a different outlook being young and naive.
I have been to every county in the four countries of the U.K., and Ireland, and will never tire of them.
I was chatting to someone about how the economy is doing and how brexit made us poorer. He had a little think and said “yeah, I used to be able to take 2 holidays a year but now I’m struggling to have 1”. It’s pretty obvious this guy was well off at some point and he was running a nightclub as a side hustle on the weekend which was pretty successful, turning a profit at least.
It’s been obvious to many of us that people are getting poorer as costs increase and certain demographics are being shielded from the impact. What I can’t understand is how someone can look at this and not realise that as people get poorer and their spending goes down that it will have massive repercussions on our economy. Businesses cannot stay open by pandering to only the wealthy in society, they simply do not spend the amount that everyone else does in volume.
All agreed, ahnd the conclusions are correct.
Fird knew this. Reeves does not.