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The number of Aito customers who said they would always book a fully-protected trip has increased this year, according to the association’s Travel Insights 2016 report.
The survey polled more than 18,000 customers, using client databases of 40 Aito companies, including 32 Aito tour operators and five Aito agents.
It revealed that 61% of respondents would always purchase a protected holiday – up by 5% on the previous study, carried out 18 months ago.
It found that 85% of travellers were planning to take at least one short break abroad next year while 77% of consumers said they were planning on at least one longer break (consisting of six nights or more) overseas.
The survey also revealed that compared with the previous study, there has been almost a 3% fall in the number of customers saying they would spend more money on purchasing holidays than they did the year before.
Aito said the decrease was “inevitably due to Brexit” but added that the 3% drop was “far less worrying than everyone had initially anticipated”.
Looking at destinations, the survey earmarked France, Italy and Spain as the most popular countries that respondents intend to visit in the next 12 months.
Kate Kenward, executive director of Aito, said: “As special interest operators, Aito members need to understand their customers’ travel requirements as fully as they can to enable them to tailor their holiday programmes even better.”
Derek Moore, Aito chairman added: “Yet again, these results will undoubtedly prove invaluable to our members, especially in such a fast-moving digital age, where they need up-to-date knowledge and research to maintain their market share.”
