UK Residents Holidaying Abroad Less and Spend Less

UK residents are travelling abroad far less than they were a year ago according to new data by the Office of National Statistics.

In the three months ending June this year, UK residents made 15.2million trips abroad, which is almost the same amount as the made in the previous three months, but down 14% on the same period last year.

North America was the biggest loser; with UK residents making 15% less visits to the continent than they did last year, making 10% fewer trips to Europe and 9% fewer trips to other parts of the world. This was to be expected because of Sterling taking a massive nose-dive against both the Euro and the US dollar as the credit crunch took a bite of the UK, benefiting markets outside the Eurozone like Egypt and Turkey.

UK residents have also been spending less on their travels, in the three months ending June this year UK residents spent £7.6billion on their holidays abroad, down 8% on the previous three months.