Although streaming services like Netflix have seen a marked downturn as consumers cut back due to the cost-of-living crisis, travel intentions were more positive, the event was told.

Brendan Judge, News UK’s communications planning director, said readers of The Times, one of News UK’s publications, were unlikely to be as sharply affected than some other consumers, but were still cutting back. However, he added:

“Often the things they ring-fence are holidays and Christmas.”

Stuart Baker, head of travel at research company GWI picked up on the theme. 

He said consumer confidence had contracted quite considerably from about November last year. Besides fuel and energy prices, the cost of childcare was one of the main issues consumers were reporting. 

However, he added: “What is really positive is that people are wanting to ring-fence holidays.”

According to research carried out by GWI between last July and this March, another optimistic trend was the purpose for travel.

Though the key reasons to go on holiday were still to relax or spend more time with family or friends, Baker said, the highest rise in intention was to ‘experience a different culture.’  

Nearly a third of respondents cited this as important to them when planning a holiday. This was significantly up across all age groups compared to last year - by 41% for those aged 35-49, by 49% for 16-34 year-olds and by 77% for 50-64 year-olds. 

“The biggest change is the emotional driver,” said Baker.   

When it comes to business travel, GWT noted that those who now work from home or in a hybrid situation were more likely to want to travel for business.