Summer Travel Trends

Activity Holidays Continue to Grow Worldwide but British Still the Laziest We Sunbathe More and Worry Less About the Risks Holidays and Spending Up for All, but Brits are More Likely to Insure Long Haul Dominates World's Top 10 Spots

London, May 9, 2007: TripAdvisor®, the world’s largest travel community, today announced the results of its annual summer travel survey of nearly 3,000 travellers worldwide.

More Time Off
It looks like we will be taking more time off this summer than last. A quarter of British and 29 percent of all TripAdvisor travellers say that they will be taking more holidays than they did last year, and 60 percent plan to take the same amount. Only 14 percent said that they will be taking less holiday this summer than last. Seventy percent of British travellers plan to take two weeks of holiday or more and 18 percent of us plan to take more than five weeks, compared with 55 and 13 percent, respectively, for all travellers worldwide.

Money Matters
Thirty-one percent of travellers intend to spend more this summer than they did last year. Just over one third of British respondents estimate they will spend between £500 and £1400 on their summer holiday this year. Twenty-three percent will spend £2500 or more.

Excluding travel and accommodation, most of our holiday spending money (53 percent) is likely to go on food and drink. Tours will account for 14 percent, followed by sports activities (4 percent), souvenirs (4 percent) and concerts and shows (3percent).

The Brits are more likely to protect their summer holiday investment than most, with 56 percent planning to take out travel insurance compared with only 32 percent of other worldwide travellers.

Increase in fuel costs and rising airfares will not make any difference to the travel plans for the great majority of Brits. Eighty-eight percent of travellers from the U.K. said that cost increases would not affect their summer plans at all compared with 79 percent of all other travellers.

We All Like to Be Beside the Seaside
Like the rest of the world, most Brits (53 percent) will be taking a beach holiday this summer. Britons, however, like their privacy and we are tops when it comes to Villa holidays with 19 percent of us opting to take a private villa compared with only 11 percent of travellers outside the U.K..

Lazy British
The popularity of outdoor activities continues to grow worldwide, as 40 percent of survey respondents plan to go hiking and camping this summer, up from 36 percent last summer. Britons however still lag well behind the rest of the world when it comes to specialist activity holidays, or educational pursuits.

U.K. travellers are even worse at being active on our summer hols. Sunbathing is what we like to do best (64 percent compared with 53 percent of all travellers) followed by cultural activities such tours, visiting museums, national parks or taking in a concert. Significantly less of us are likely to go hiking, biking, sailing or fishing, or play golf or tennis. Perhaps more surprisingly, we are just as willing to get our kit off as the rest of the world, with four percent saying they will be visiting a nudist beach.

New Horizons or Creatures of Habit?
Fifty-five percent of TripAdvisor travellers intend to take their summer vacation at a destination they have never visited before. Thirty-three percent of travellers, however, will go to the same destination they did last summer, about half of whom will stay at the same hotel, resort or rental.

The British are more likely to keep in touch with work (62 percent) and watch TV (59 percent) than all other holidaymakers.

Sunburn Warnings Ignored
Sunbathing may be the most popular of summer holiday activities for the British (64 percent) but just over half of us (55 percent) say that we will be using sunscreen whenever we are exposed to direct sunlight. Contrary to expert advice, 43 percent of British holidaymakers said they would only use sunscreen if exposed to the sun for an hour or more and only 53 percent were worried about getting sunburned.

Aside from concerns about sunburn, jellyfish stings, riptides and theft are the biggest fears among beachgoers this summer. Fourteen percent of travellers worry about a shark attack.

Summer Abroad
Sixty-three percent of travellers will be travelling outside their home country for their summer vacation. Despite the weakened dollar, 46 percent of Americans will be travelling outside the U.S. this summer, up from 43 percent last summer.

Long Haul is Hot
TripAdvisor also released its TravelCast, a barometer of what’s hot and what’s not in travel destinations, for the second half of 2007, based on criteria including changes in search activity and postings on tripadvisor.com. Emerging hotspots include Las Terrenas, Dominican Republic, Breaux Bridge, Louisiana and Seminyak in Bali, Indonesia. The complete world and list is provided below.

Said TripAdvisor European communications manager, Ian Rumgay, “It looks like we will all be taking more time off and spending more money on our holidays this summer. The British love affair with the sun, sand and sangria continues unabated and warnings about exposure to the sun are being ignored. So it would appear are calls by the environmental lobby to cut down on air travel, especially long haul.