Nothing quite measures up to the breadth and depth of information on the UK’s travel and tourism industry that one receives in the Travel Weekly Annual Report. Produced by TW in association with Deloitte, the tome (its PDF version is 56 pages long) is released just prior to the year-end holidays and, INBOUND believes, might not get the reach of attention in the United States that it deserves for the knowledgeable insight and understanding of the nation of 68 million people that happens to be the largest overseas source market for tourism to the United States.
Sending, as it does, about one out of every overseas 10-plus visitors who arrive in the U.S. each year, it is important for those of us in the travel and tourism industry in the USA to understand the whims and ways and likes of the British traveler.
As for the statement that says it all, few could do as well as Alistair Pritchard, lead partner, Travel and Aviation, Deloitte LLP, in his summary notice: “The COVID-19 pandemic forced people and businesses around the world to adapt overnight to a new way of living and working,” he said, adding, “Despite the initial disruption, we witnessed immense resilience. Businesses banded together to find innovative ways to address customer needs while putting the health, safety and wellbeing of their workforce and consumers first.”
As seems to be the graphic fashion these days, the TW Insight/Report zaps the reader’s senses with a word cloud of facts, figures and word-pairs that require some translation, which we’ve provided in the list below.
Key Findings
—31 percent of those surveyed are planning an overseas holiday this year; this is down by 22 percentage points vs. last year.
—Onein two fear having to self-isolate on holiday.
—45 percent plan a domestic holiday; this is down 22 percentage points year-on-year.
—Two in five travelers plan to avoid a “busy destination.”
—Half fear catching COVID while on holiday.
—Two in five are concerned about flying.
—Twice as many 16-34-year-olds are as happy to fly as over-55-year-olds.
—Two-thirds (68 percent) won’t fly long-haul till they can be vaccinated.
—Two out of three over-45-year-want ATOL (Airline Travel Organizer License) protection for their holiday.
—More than half (53 percent) want a refund guarantee for their trip/package.
—More than a quarter (27 percent) are concerned about the impact of tourism in a destination.
—Half of overseas holidaymakers plan on booking an “all-inclusive” this year.
—Two in five people plan to spend more on their holiday in 2021 than they did last year.
—One in five plans to book with a high street agent.
Source: Service Science/Kantar
Recovery Will Come, We Just Don’t Know How Quickly: One factor hampering the UK numbers crunchers at TW and elsewhere is a simple, but very taxing reality: “Some of the data to which all of those who observe tourism-related matters refer just isn’t there,” explains Ian Taylor, executive editor at TW UK, adding, “no one can judge with certainty what bookings will be like four weeks hence and with three major sources of industry data unavailable. The survey behind UK Office for National Statistics’ outbound and inbound data is suspended, as is the GB Tourism Survey which supplies domestic data. In addition, GfK has unhappily ceased collating outbound booking data.”
What research there is, Taylor said, “suggests a substantially reduced number of overseas holidays in 2021. But counter to some forecasts, it suggests no significant change in the type of holiday, no great switch to the outdoors or away from luxury hotels, and no shift away from all-inclusive. There also appears no great acceleration in embrace of technology, albeit this may simply be taken for granted.”
1. The UK Holiday Market
—27 million: the number of UK adults who take at least one overseas holiday in a normal year.
—16.5 million: the number who intend to take an overseas holiday in 2021
—36.4 million: the number of UK adults who take at least one domestic break in a normal year.
—24.3 million: the number who intend to take a UK break in 2021.
Source for above: Service Science Kantar
2. UK Outbound Holiday Market, Pre-COVID*
—50 percent: Percentage of Britons who took at least one overseas holiday in 2019 (Down four percent YoY)
—24 percent: Percentage of Britons who took two or more overseas holidays in 2019 (Up one percentage point YoY)
3. UK Holiday Market, Pre-COVID*
—86 percent: Number of Britons who took an overseas holiday who also had a domestic break (Down three percentage points YoY)
4. UK Domestic Holiday Market, Pre-COVID*
—67 percent: Percentage of Britons who took at least one domestic holiday a year in 2019 (Down four percent YoY)
—40 percent: Percentage of Britons who took two or more domestic holidays in 2019 (Down five percentage points YoY)
To see the complete report, visit here.
