£54bn hols splash
Staycations rise and travel abroad falls as airport queues deter travel
FAMILIES are set to splash out £54billion on holidays this year fuelled by a boom in staycations.
Spending on UK-based trips is expected to hit £15.7bn – 9 per cent higher than in 2019.
Holidays abroad are expected to reach £38.2bn, 12 per cent short of the 2019 figure of £43.3bn.
Almost three-quarters of those polled said scenes of long queues at airports have put them off flying until the problems ease.
And eight in 10 said they were likely to have a staycation in the next two years. More than half said they could not afford to spend as much on travel as before the pandemic. A third were worried that Covidrelated disruption such as last minute changes to entry requirements could ruin holiday plans. Paul Davies, Mintel category director of travel, leisure and food service, said: “Inflation – including the cost of travel and car hire – together with airport disruptions and the ongoing uncertainty regarding Covid-19 are some of the challenges holidaymakers are having to deal with at present.
“The rising cost of living will force holidaymakers to prioritise expenditure carefully, just as they did during the last income squeeze.
“Short overseas trips and city breaks will take longer to recover as Brits prioritise their main holiday, whilst lowercost staycations and camping breaks will perform strongly.”
Delays returned to the Port of Dover yesterday morning.
Ferry operator P&O warned passengers of “major queues” and to expect a two-hour wait to complete checks before boarding.
It later said: “The queues continue to ease and the current wait time to reach border checks is approx 25-30 minutes.”
It comes after tens of thousands of travellers were stuck in traffic around the Kent port last week. It was blamed on a combination of French border control not being fully staffed and a serious crash on the M20 motorway.