Research carried out by the organisation found 49% of families who travelled with the company last year travelled for the first time ever.

Between January and June 2022, the FHC worked with VisitEngland and the Department for Culture to run the England for Everyone project, which saw 822 families take a holiday during the six-month period. 

Nearly all (95%) of the families reported the trips had a positive impact on their mental health, and 83% said the holidays had a positive impact on their confidence.

According to Abta’s Holiday Habits survey, in 2022 around eight million (23%) people in the UK didn’t have a holiday, compared with 12% pre-pandemic.

Kat Lee, chief executive of the FHC, said: "Going on holiday costs money, so it would be easy to assume the only reason people aren’t engaging with tourism is financial.

"But how much spare cash you have isn’t fixed, it changes for all of us [due to] life events like redundancy, divorce, the latest energy bill. So why people aren’t travelling is much more nuanced."

Through 2023 and beyond, the charity will be developing data insights and digging deeper into the barriers to participation in tourism. 

"The issues these families are facing are real and obviously preventing access to tourism," Lee continued.

 "If you have never had a tourism opportunity you don’t know to prioritise it, or what it can bring to you or your family. When we show people and they feel it, they embrace it."

Breaking down barriers

Charity trustee Julia Lo Bue-Said, chief executive of the Advantage Travel Partnership, echoed Lee’s comments.

She has called for cohesion on understanding why customers aren’t travelling and working with the charity to break down the barriers to tourism. 

"Together, we should learn more about the estimated eight million people who aren’t going on holiday – if we understand why, we’ll know how we can work together to address the barriers and get them travelling," Lo Bue-Said continued.

"We can do this by bringing together the evidence and impetus to build change inside and outside the sector, so more children and young people go on to feel the positive benefits of a holiday for themselves."