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Brits make sarnies to save their holidays
Utility bills may be through the roof, shopping receipts sky high and mortgages repayments climbing steadily but Brits still refuse to give up their annual holiday.
That’s the finding of the latest survey on how we’re coping with the credit crunch, this time by travel website ebookers.com.
Research showed that more than half of the 1003 surveyed consider taking a holiday either important or absolutely necessary. Just 12% said breaks were a luxury.
Respondants said they were prepared to make sacrifices to safeguard their two weeks away including limiting luxuries bought in the supermarket, going on less nights out and buying fewer clothes and food.
The survey found people will even make sandwiches for work, take the bus and train more, buy fewer magazines and DVDs and give up gym memberships
Ebookers managing director Ciaran Lally said: “Just a generation ago holidays were an extravagance, especially trips abroad. Now though, even as many people said they are already tightening the purse strings, people treat holidays as an almost necessary part of their existence.
“We’ve also found out that people are making changes in other aspects of their lives – saving money where they can – in part to protect their holidays. Plus where they go still matters.â€
Those feeling the pinch most were young families with one in ten saying they would consider taking out a loan to pay for a holiday and one in five likely to go into overdraft to pay for it.
Overall, 51% of young families say the economic slowdown will influence their holiday plans, compared with 38% of single households and 39% of older families.
But more than half of the survey’s respondents said they will not be changing their travel plans in the near future, “credit crunch or otherwiseâ€. They also won’t be altering destination choice, with 56% being totally inflexible on where they go.
By Dinah Hatch
Bev
Editor in chief Bev Fearis has been a travel journalist for 25 years. She started her career at Travel Weekly, where she became deputy news editor, before joining Business Traveller as deputy editor and launching the magazine’s website. She has also written travel features, news and expert comment for the Guardian, Observer, Times, Telegraph, Boundless and other consumer titles and was named one of the top 50 UK travel journalists by the Press Gazette.
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