Wex report shows impact of Brexit
Consumers intend to spend less on their holidays following the Brexit vote, but are not significantly scaling back on their travel plans.
Analysis of research carried out before and after Britain’s vote to leave the European Union, by corporate payment solutions company Wex, found a marginal drop in the number of trips planned.
The first poll, undertaken in May, found 65% of the 1,000 Brits questioned plan to travel at least twice over the next 12 months. This figure dipped to 62% when the same question was asked in August.
However, 25% of respondents said they plan to travel three times or more, compared to 35% in the earlier survey.
Meanwhile, the average travel spend for the next 12 months dropped 11% from £2,924 in the pre-Brexit survey to £2,597 after the leave vote.
"Despite the decreases seen following Brexit, overall consumers are confident to spend a significant amount on travel and have the desire to go away more than once, demonstrating that opportunity exists for travel companies to capitalise on longer-term pattern of growth in spending," said Wex in its report.
Its analysis also showed a shift in interest in holidays to Greece following the vote, with 40% of Brits saying they want to go there, compared to 17% pre-Brexit.
"Consumers are gaining confidence in Greece as a holiday destination and post-Brexit it appears to be the biggest winner," said Ian Johnson, commercial director Europe virtual payments.
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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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