Mixed picture emerging for Brits’ summer travel plans

The first four months of 2009 delivered encouraging news for the British travel industry as the number of holidays taken by Britons showed a 13% rise over the same period last year.

The latest figures released by VisitEngland from the United Kingdom Tourism Survey showed the holiday sector benefited from Brits choosing to take their breaks closer to home this year – to take a ‘staycation’. The report also showed that overall trips taken throughout England in April increased by 34%. However, the later Easter this year was no doubt a significant contributing factor here.

VisitEngland chief executive, James Berresford welcomed the results as encouraging. He said, ‘Time will tell if the trend for holidaying at home continues throughout the summer, but these early indications that people are rediscovering holidays in England is welcome news to the leisure tourism sector.’

However, the picture was not quite so encouraging for business travel. Over the same four-month period business trips were down by 5% overall as companies continued to look for ways to save money in a difficult economic climate.

Berresford added, ‘We know that businesses are still having a tough time and business travel is still a big concern which we will continue to monitor – however it seems for now that leisure travel is helping to keep the numbers at the same level as last year, which is certainly encouraging given the differences in the economic climate in the two comparative years.’

Figures from the Office of National Statistics confirmed that outbound travel for January to April 2009 was down 18%. However, it is likely that results for the next quarter will present a different picture as British tour operators report Britons are rushing to book last-minute holidays abroad following the wettest July on record. The Association of British Travel Agents, whose members provide 90% of the overseas package holidays sold in Britain, have reported increases in business of up to 40%.

For a different, up-to-date view of where British ‘tweeters’ are now heading for their 2009 summer holiday their live travel plans can be tracked on an online holiday map launched recently by Twitter and Vodafone.

Tweeters are being encouraged to tweet the hashtag #ukhol along with their age, sex, the first half of their postcode and holiday destination. Their journey then pops up on the Vodafone/Twitter Google map at www.ukholsmap.com.

Since the map was launched in June, Tokyo, New York and Paris have emerged as favourite holiday destinations, while 16% of Brits were ‘staycationing’ this summer. In early August London was third in the list of top destinations. Birmingham holidaymakers appeared the most likely to enjoy the better weather promised for August, with 20% heading to UK destinations such as Brighton and Cornwall.