Mintel estimates the number of beach holidays abroad in 2014 at 15.0 million with a total value of around £10.7 billion (excluding transport costs). Beach holidays have been impacted by challenging trading conditions since 2008 in line with holidays abroad as a whole. However they appear to have shown more resilience than the overall market, with consumers reluctant to give up their annual dose of foreign sunshine.
At the same time this most mainstream of holidays is in danger of becoming a purely price-driven, commoditised market as the rise of online dynamic packaging threatens the traditional role of tour operators, while mass-market sun, sea, sand destinations struggle to diversify beyond a limited ‘bucket and spade’ image.
This report explores key market drivers, trends and opportunities, looks at leading operators and products and includes consumer analysis including beach holiday destinations visited, type of accommodation used, how beach holidays are booked, important factors in choosing beach holidays and attitudes. This is the first time Mintel has reported on this market
Definition
This report examines beach holidays abroad taken by UK residents. These are defined as holidays near a seaside location, where the beach forms a significant - but not necessarily the only - element of that holiday. These holidays must constitute a stay of at least one night and do not include business trips, visits to stay with friends and relatives or stays solely for events such as weddings or funerals.
An adult, for the purposes of Mintel’s research, is anyone aged 16 years old or over.
The standard travel and tourism definitions used in the terminology of this report are as follows:
Tourism is any travel, which involves an overnight stay away from home.
A holiday is a subjectively defined form of tourism, as defined by the tourist in response to surveys such as the IPS. A holiday can be distinguished from other leisure travel such as visits to friends and relatives (VFR) or shopping trips.
A long holiday is a holiday of four nights or more away from home; a short break is a holiday that involves one-to-three nights away from home.
Short-haul refers to air holidays within Europe, dominated by flights to Mediterranean resorts but including the Canaries, which are treated as a part of the Spanish market. Long-haul, therefore, refers to holidays outside Europe.
An inclusive tour, or package holiday, is defined as the simultaneous sale of at least two elements of a holiday to the traveller: fares on public transport (eg flights) and commercial accommodation (eg hotel or self-catering apartment). Other elements, such as meals or excursions, are not essential to the definition of an inclusive tour. The term ‘all-inclusive’ is used to describe a special type of resort holiday in which food, drink, excursions and other services are provided as part of the total holiday cost.
An independent holiday is one in which the traveller organises and books transport and accommodation from separate sources (eg a channel ferry crossing and a caravan site in France).
A dynamically packaged holiday or Flight-Plus holiday is a holiday in which individual components (eg flight, hotel and car hire) are put together from different suppliers, either via a high street travel agent or online travel intermediary.
Seat- or flight-only is a type of independent holiday, and the terms are used to denote holidays in which travellers only purchase a return fare and thereafter book their own accommodation, car hire etc.
In addition to quantitative consumer research, Mintel also conducted an online discussion group among a demographically mixed group of around 15 consumers.
This discussion group was asynchronous (ie not run in real time), functioning like a blog or bulletin board, with questions remaining posted for a pre-determined period of time. This method allows participants to respond reflectively, at their leisure, or to log off to think about any issues raised and return later to respond. Participants were recruited from GMI’s online consumer panel.
Crown copyright material is reproduced with the permission of the Controller of HMSO and the Queen’s Printer for Scotland.
