Overseas holidays down and fewer Brits going long haul
The number of visits abroad from the UK dropped last year, with the biggest fall among holiday visits.
The overall number of visits overseas fell 0.5% from 56.8 million in 2011 to 56.5 million last year.
Holiday visits, which account for nearly two thirds of visits abroad, fell most significantly by 1.8%.
Meanwhile, business visits and visits to friends or relatives grew slightly.
According to the latest travel trends report from the Office of National Statistics (ONS), UK residents cut back on longer haul trips to North America and other countries outside Europe.
The number of trips to North America plunged 7.5% from 3.7 million to 3.4 million, while travel to other countries outside of Europe dropped 2% from 9.1 million to 8.9 million.
Visits to Europe increased very slightly by 0.3% to 44.2 million.
The number of package holidays abroad rose in 2011, but last year they slipped by 1.8%.
"Given the 1.8% fall in all holiday visits, package holidays’ share of the holiday market remained unchanged," said the ONS report.
Spain and France still account for approximately a third of visits abroad, but while visits to Spain were up 4.3% to 11.1 million, visits to France continue to decline and are now 2.1 million lower than in 2008 (8.8 million compared with 10.9 million).
Visits were down to Greece by 5.7% to 1.8 million following an increase in 2011.
Visits to Egypt, which has seen unrest, have almost halved since 2009 from 749,000 to 407,000, and fell by 109,000 in 2012.
But last year, Morocco, Tunisia and other North Africa countries saw a growth of 121,000 visits from the UK.
Despite a 1.8% fall in visitor nights spent abroad by UK residents in 2012, spending on visits abroad rose by 2.4% in absolute terms to £32.4 million.
by Bev Fearis
Bev
Editor in chief Bev Fearis has been a travel journalist for 25 years. She started her career at Travel Weekly, where she became deputy news editor, before joining Business Traveller as deputy editor and launching the magazine’s website. She has also written travel features, news and expert comment for the Guardian, Observer, Times, Telegraph, Boundless and other consumer titles and was named one of the top 50 UK travel journalists by the Press Gazette.
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