Now in its tenth year, Abta's Holiday Habits report – released at the recent Abta Convention in Calvia – is the association's annual deep dive into the UK travelling public's sentiments, attitudes, preferences and plans.
Based on a survey of 2,000 adults conducted during July and August this year, the 2025 edition is once again loaded with actionable insights that travel agents and marketers can use to inform their strategies for the year ahead.
For us, the key themes arising from the report’s findings can be distilled into three Rs – resilience, ringfencing and responsibility.
Abta's data is a reminder of just how resilient the UK travel market is; 87% of people took a holiday in the past 12 months – that's the highest level since 2019 (and since the dreaded p-word).
Travel is uniquely vulnerable to forces beyond its control, but wildfires, geo-political strife, and economic uncertainty haven’t dented UK consumers' determination to see the world. And with the data indicating that 87% figure will increase again in 2026, this means it’s a seller’s market.
So is your marketing strategy optimised to get your share of it?
Consumers' sacrifices 'a double-edged sword'
This brings us onto our second R – ringfencing. Despite the ongoing pressure on household budgets, holidays are the last area of discretionary spend that respondents to Abta’s survey will cut back on to manage the cost of living.
Out go cinema trips, the latest iPhone or trying that new restaurant in town – so long as it means they still get to take the 3.8 holidays a year the data says is the average number taken by UK consumers in the past 12 months.
But as much as this sounds like good news, it’s a double-edged sword. The flip side of the sacrifices consumers make to ensure they can take a holiday is the responsibility (that’s our third R) travel brands have to ensure they’re offering reliably good value – and for marketers to be messaging that accordingly.
Shelton: don't forget your three Rs (Credit: We Are Llama)
That doesn’t mean being cheap – according to the data, 85% of Brits expect to spend about the same or more on their holidays in the coming year. But it does mean leaning into the benefits, services and products which are the proof points of your differentiation.
There is much more in Abta's report which should be of interest to travel marketers. It emphasised again the generational divide that characterises the sources consumers use for holiday inspiration, research,and booking, reiterating both the need for a carefully segmented channel and media strategy, and the opportunity for hyper-personalised communications.
It also highlights the growing influence of AI on that inspiration to booking journey, and the need for marketers to be at the sharp end of that disruption.
'No change' shouldn't mean 'don't change'
And in a different definition of our third R, the report again shows people continue to grow in awareness about the extractive nature of travel, and want to know they’re travelling responsibly.
This is especially acute among younger consumers – but if you get it right with them, you might have their loyalty for life. So, out with the greenwashing, and in with authentic and genuine initiatives.
Finally, in some respects, Abta’s report indicates the past 12 months weren’t that different from the 12 before, and things won’t change much in the next. The same destinations are the most popular, the same types of holiday, and the same preference for packages and using agents to book (for the same reasons).
But "no change" shouldn’t mean "don’t change". In a market that is seemingly poised to grow, and against a backdrop of accelerating technological innovation, travel marketers have the opportunity to demonstrate real value – and even take some risks.
If you want those risks to be grounded in data, Abta’s report is a good place to start.
So with a final three-R rhetorical flourish, for travel marketers, Holiday Habits 2025 is required reading, really.
Andrew Shelton has nearly 30 years’ travel industry experience with the likes of British Airways, Virgin Holidays, Cheapflights and Netflights. He is a founding member of the Llama collective of travel marketing specialists, helping brands all over the world to sharpen their marketing.
