Over a third (36%) of Brits have returned to their favourite childhood holiday spot in the last 5 years, a TripAdvisor survey of over 5,000 UK travellers has revealed.*
And the good news for the UK tourism industry is that over half of Brits (57%) named their favourite childhood holiday as a trip to the British seaside.
The survey found that, for most of us, childhood memories immediately invoke seaside sensations – with the sound of the sea (37%) and the feeling of sand between our toes (19%) the two most cited sensations Brits associate with childhood holidays.
An overwhelming 82% of Brits named a destination in the UK as their childhood favourite with South West England holding the fondest holiday memories for a third (30%), followed by the South East (14%) and Wales (14%).
“For many of us, our favourite memories as a child are often from when we were on holiday, so perhaps it is no surprise that so many of us relive those holidays again as adults,” commented James Kay, TripAdvisor spokesperson, “But what is interesting is that when we do return we often find new things to fall in love with, which proves that is worth taking the time to research new places to stay, eat and visit on sites like TripAdvisor, even if we’re travelling somewhere familiar.”
Encouragingly for UK tourism, of those Brits who have chosen to revisit their favourite childhood destination in the last five years, 86% said it lived up to their positive expectations. The most popular reason for Brits to go back to the spot of their favourite holiday memory was to share it with their spouse of partner.
Among parents, nearly half (46%) have revisited their favourite childhood holiday destination with their own children. Three quarters (75%) of parents doing so said their children enjoyed the trip as much as they had done as a child, though interestingly over a third (37%) said that had been for different reasons.
Half of parents (54%) say they feel family holidays are safer now than they were when they were a child, and nearly three quarters (74%) feel there are more activities for the whole family to do than when they were young.
Family travellers also benefit from a wealth of information available online to help them plan the perfect trip. For example, travellers can now filter hotel search options for family-friendly hotels on TripAdvisor while also taking advantage of a Hotel Price Comparison tool to compares prices and availability.
