What you need to know
The total number of holidays made by UK travellers to the Americas and Caribbean reached four million in 2018, an increase of 5% over the previous year and 22% since 2014. The US is the favourite long-haul destination for UK travellers with 2.2 million trips in 2018, but numbers have remained flat since 2015 and declined in the longer term. Holidays to Canada totalled just over 200,000 in 2018.
Holidays to the Caribbean reached 752,000 in 2018. Trips to the region were sharply impacted by the severe 2017 hurricane season but are now recovering.
South/Central America is the most rapidly growing segment. Holidays to this region reached 839,000 in 2018, an increase of 22% compared with the previous year and 62% since 2014. The rising popularity of Mexico has been the main driver of this growth. Travel to other countries in the region is relatively low but is beginning to open up.
Covered in this Report
Holidays refer to overnight trips of at least one night made for leisure purposes. Trips for the purpose of visiting friends and family, business or other purposes are excluded. Data on the size of the overseas holiday market is for the United Kingdom, sourced from IPS. The holiday destinations covered include North America (the US and Canada), the Caribbean and Central/South America.
