ABTA is hoping a survey which shows MPs to be prolific holidaymakers will help focus their minds on the issue of Air Passenger Duty rises.

The first annual ABTA Parliamentary Holiday Survey finds 56% of MPs will be taking their holiday abroad this summer with around half of their colleagues in the House of Lords doing likewise.

Seventy-five per cent of MPs surveyed will be visiting short-haul destinations and about a quarter further afield with the Mediterranean most popular for overseas holidays and Scotland top for domestic tourism.

Multiple holidays were particularly common among peers with 91% saying they took two or more a year and half of them saying they enjoyed three or more.

Fifty-seven per cent of MPs said they took two or more holidays, slightly below the national average.

But peers appear to have greener habits in resort with 77% claiming do what they can to protect the environment while on holiday compared to 67% of MPs boasting of doing the same.

ABTA chairman John McEwan said: "Our first ABTA Parliamentary Holiday survey clearly shows that a summer break and other holidays throughout the year, are as important for our political representatives as for the rest of us.

“ABTA is calling on Government to recognise this importance and cancel the planned drastic increase in Air Passenger Duty this November which will see a family of four paying £360 in tax for a flight to Florida at a time when family budgets are already under severe pressure."

by Debbie Ward