2010 set to be a good year for UK tourism

Recent research by BDRC Continental – a market research company – showed a strong trend towards favouring the UK as a holiday destination this year rather than going abroad.

The research shows that 70% of people surveyed are likely to book a holiday in the country. Also, the UK is more appealing than last year or the previous year with 31% of people finding Britain more attractive as a holiday destination this year compared with 25% in 2009 and only 19% in 2008.

The proportion of those who said they were seriously considering taking a UK holiday this year has increased by as much as 10 percentage points to 39% against the same time last year.

The two main reasons BDRC has identified for this trend are the weakness of the pound (notably against the euro) and a certain disillusionment with air travel. Households – and particularly families with children – are going to be cutting back further on their holiday spend, although they still want to be able to go away somewhere.

This is a great opportunity for accommodation providers – and particularly those with self-catering accommodation – who offer high quality at an accessible price; two conditions in high demand nowadays.

These findings are confirmed by holiday home website holidaylettings.co.uk who report having already received 2.5m visits since the beginning of the year with the UK topping the charts for enquiries.

The UK was also the second most popular destination for the February half-term and the third favourite destination (after Spain and France) for summer holidays.