Young UK travellers “most adventurous”
UK student travellers are by far the most adventurous in the world, a global survey by youth travel specialist STA Travel shows.
They are “real adrenalin junkies”, enjoying bungee jumping, sky diving and dune boarding while on holiday.
By contrast, American youth travellers are described as being “more the culture-vulture types looking for language courses and cultural activities”.
The findings come from research conducted amongst more than 20,000 customers and staff covering 10 of STA Travel’s divisions worldwide, including the UK.
Europe emerged as “almost everyone’s” favourite destination, including young UK travellers, with North America and Australasia as their second and third choices respectively.
Young travellers from the UK were found to be the biggest spenders on travel with an average spend of $2,481, while South Africans spent the least at $1,494. Two-thirds of UK customers have taken or plan to take a gap year out travelling.
The poll found that UK travellers love the sunshine and when asked where they would most like to spend Christmas, 30% opted for Bondi Beach, Australia.
The threat of terrorism did not seem a major deterrent to the typically adventurous young traveller. More than 60% of customers surveyed in both Australia and Austria said acts of terrorism in foreign countries would not deter them from travelling to those areas.
Despite the Middle East rating as the least popular destination for 2004, one in 10 young South Africans surveyed planned to travel there in the next 12 months.
Round the world and backpacking trips are most popular with Australian, UK and German travellers, while city breaks are the chocie of two-thirds of German, Swiss and Austrians.
STA, which marks its 25th anniversary this year, claims 2.5 million customers a year with total turnover for 2003 of more than $1 billion.
Report by Phil Davies
Phil Davies
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