Brits are ready to spend nearly £2 billion extra on their holidays this year despite the ongoing uncertainty over Brexit, Stephen Glennon reports.
A Netflights poll has found, on average, British holidaymakers were planning to spend £630pp more on their holidays compared to last year.
Respondents cited a weak pound as the main reason for a roughly 40% budget boost, with 26% revealing they were looking beyond Europe for their next holiday destination to make their money go further.
One in five said they were no longer planning to go to Europe this year, with a quarter biding their time on where to go to see how things pan out.
However, although Brexit is “on the mind” of around half of those thinking about their 2019 holiday plans, nearly two-thirds said “people are worrying too much” about Brexit, while around 40% said they thought “it will all be fine”.
Andrew Shelton, managing director of Netflights, said: “Brexit can’t – and shouldn’t – be ignored, but our poll suggests that people don’t think it means life should grind to a halt either.
“Naturally, news reporting is creating some anxiety but whatever happens on March 29, there is currently no expectation that travel will be disrupted.
“Our poll shows that, despite the goings-on within Westminster, the public isn’t pulling up the drawbridge on its holiday planning for 2019. Quite the opposite.
“In fact, Brits are packing their bags in defiance of the doom-mongers, and looking to travel as a way escape the exhausting parliamentary psychodrama.”
Dubai (+100%), Barbados and Hong Kong (each +70%) and Singapore (+50%) have seen the greatest increase in sales with Netflights, with sales to European and American destinations up 9% despite the weaker pound.