Taking a holiday abroad at the moment carries risks that we couldn’t have imagined a year ago. At a time when there’s so much uncertainty associated with travel, many of us are choosing to stay at home, with dramatic effects on the tourism industry and airlines in particular.
TGI data held within AMSR shows that the number of us taking holidays abroad almost trebled between 1972 and 2012. Over this 40-year timespan, we can see that 6.2 million going abroad in 1972 had become 16.8 million by 2012.
This year, many of us have opted for holidaying in Britain rather than going abroad. In fact TGI shows that – despite this huge expansion in foreign holidays – staycationers are still the majority. In 2012, 49% of us took a break within the UK, while 33% went abroad. Quite a few did both, of course.
There are differences by age band. Those going abroad are balanced equally across all groups, but younger adults are much less likely to take UK holidays – 39% of 15-34s took staycations compared to 55% of those aged 55+. It may be that this picture will change, with the foreign holiday becoming much more the territory of younger adults while their more risk-averse elders explore destinations at home.
Sources:
TGI (Target Group Index) is a continuous survey which has been carried out in Great Britain since 1969, based on 25,000 adults per annum, who provide information on their use of all major products, brands and services. Media exposure, attitudinal and demographic data are also included. Kantar, who own and operate the TGI (Target Group Index) have made major donations of data to AMSR. Click here to explore the TGI archive within AMSR.
Contributed by Geoff Wicken
Date posted: 4th September 2020