The number of holidays taken abroad rose by 4% in both 2013 and 2014, reaching just over 39 million trips, the highest level since 2008. Meanwhile, domestic holiday volumes have fallen back 7% over the past five years since the ‘staycation’ peak of 2009, with the pace of decline increasing fast in 2014.
As the axis of travel begins to swing back towards overseas destinations, driven by economic factors, Mintel offers an overview of the current holiday market and prospects for the rest of 2015 and beyond.
This report explores key market drivers, market size, segmentation and forecasts, key trends and product innovation and consumer holiday taking patterns across the overseas and domestic travel sectors. Mintel last reported on this market in January 2014.
Definition
This report examines the holiday habits and attitudes of British adults. Holidays can take place in the UK or abroad, but must constitute at least one overnight stay.
The business travel market is not reviewed in this report.
An adult, for the purposes of Mintel’s research, is anyone aged 16 or over.
The standard travel and tourism definitions used in the terminology of this report are as follows:
Tourism is any travel which involves at least one 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.
Short haul refers to destinations within Europe. The following destinations are considered to be short haul: Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus EU, Cyprus Non-EU, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Gibraltar, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Irish Republic, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Russia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey and Other Europe.
Long haul refers to destinations outside of Europe.
The Canaries are included as a part of the Spanish market, while Madeira and the Azores are included as part of the Portuguese market.
A 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.
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