UK Tourism To Experience Bad Times As Britons Holiday Abroad

The dire May Bank Holiday weather and heavy rainstorm which met commuters on their way back to the factories on the Tuesday, following an extended weekend, has led to a large increase in bookings for holidays abroad. Many UK residents it seems are trying to duck away from the random weather of the UK and go somewhere hot and sunny. Over the course of the bank holiday and particularly around Tuesday lunch time, online travel websites like, lastminute.com, Thomson and First Choice experienced dramatic rises in online holiday bookings, some even by 22%.

The climate of the UK is a deciding issue in pushing British holiday makers abroad in record numbers again this year, bookings alone for winter breaks have dramatically increased and demand for short city breaks is ever growing. With the situation of global financial diffidence in the UK at the moment, short city breaks are becoming well liked with people not ready to shell out for full price holidays. The mean cost for a week’s holiday has recently been put at £2,057, according to a recent survey of around three thousand travellers abroad.

The quick, city breaks, costing less are rising in demand, promoted by costs of 2 weeks abroad as opposed to shorter breaks, a recent survey by an online travel website, reported that over 18% of holiday makers are opting for these short city breaks as opposed to only 23 per cent taking a fortnight or more.

A major reason for the upturn in city breaks and temptation of far away sunny destinations is due to the pound’s current standing against the Euro. The pound is relatively weak against the Euro,at the moment, a Euro costs 78pence. This has led to traditional destination haunts like Spain and Cyprus take a decline in bookings with holiday makers looking at cheaper alternatives in countries such as Romania, Turkey and Bulgaria where the pound is stronger.

One of these countries, Romania, have certainly noticed a steady increase of tourism to their towns over the last few years. Last year alone the tourism market made 34 million Euros more than in the previous year. Although, many Britons choose to holiday now in eastern European countries, the infrastructure and facilities does not have enough appeal to make foreign tourists spend more money and so help their economy. Even still, the forecasts for this year is that the number of tourists should rise by around 13-15%.

19% of people surveyed were also looking to visit countries were the pound is strong. This means that the USA, with its weak dollar is particularly appealing with cities such as New York, Orlando, LA and Vegas touted as potential break destinations.

All in all the future doubt surrounding the strength of the Uk currency against other currencies as well as mounting utility, fuel and mortgage payments, will certainly mean that holidays abroad to traditional destinations like Spain and Greece, become less and breaks to eastern European countries like Bulgaria increase, from our need to get the most from our money in today’s tough financial climate.

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Lucy is a part-time writer commentating on UK Travel, such as Butlins on behalf of eComparison.

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