Nearly four in 10 respondents (38%) to a survey of more than 2,000 UK adults for the association’s latest Holiday Habits report said they booked with a travel professional, up by four percentage points (ppts) compared with the year before, which Abta said was “back to its peak”.

Travellers aged 65 and above were the most likely to book with a travel professional at 44% of respondents, in line with last year.

However, the proportion of 25-34-year-olds who said they booked with a travel professional increased by five ppts to 39%, while among 18-24-year-olds, the increase was six ppts to 35%.

The data refers to holidays taken between August 2025 and July 2026.

EES 'yet to significantly affect UK travellers' – Abta

There was a slight increase in the total number of people who had taken a holiday anywhere iduring this period, up by one ppt to 88% of respondents, which is on a par with the last pre-Covid report in 2019.

However, the proportion of respondents that have holidayed overseas was still two ppts lower than it was in 2019.

The proportion of holidaymakers who took a city break in the period rose by six ppts versus the previous year, overtaking beach holidays as the most popular holiday type overall, although for the family segment specifically, beach holidays remained number one.

Elsewhere, the proportion of holidaymakers who said they used a travel agent or tour operator for inspiration remained the same year-on-year at 21% of respondents, with a significant number (23%) saying they are still using brochures.

There was a slight uptick in the proportion citing social media as a source of holiday inspiration, up from 22% to 24% of those surveyed.

More than a third (37%) said they had done some general internet searching without using an AI summary, while only 13% specified they had searched using an AI summary. A similar 1% reported they had used an AI tool such as ChatGPT or Claude.

Confidence 'holding up well'

Looking ahead to 2027, Abta’s NPS-style consumer confidence index (subtracting those with low confidence from those with high confidence) was revealed to be at +50, which is three points lower than last year.

Abta said in the report: “While that shows consumer confidence has taken a bit of a knock, it is perhaps surprising the number has held up so well given the disruption to travel caused for much of 2026 by conflict in the Middle East and reporting of long queues and (in some cases) missed flights as Europe adapted to [EU] Entry-Exit System (EES) border controls.”

Interestingly, the confidence index of those respondents who booked with a travel professional was much higher at +77.

Intention to travel in the next 12 months is strong, with 70% of all respondents saying they intend to take an overseas holiday, although there was a dip of five ppts versus last year in 25-34-year-old age bracket specifically.

The top reason for booking with a travel professional was cited as being “ease of booking”, followed by “saves me time”.

The most significant change year-on-year was in the proportion saying they booked with a travel professional for “value for money”, up by five ppts from 39% to 44% of respondents.

“We get asked [by consumers] on a weekly basis – is booking with a travel agent more expensive?" said Abta's Head of Media and Communications Emma Brennan. "We always say, agents can have access to better deals that might not be available to the wider public."