U.K. Travel Confidence Index Shows Travel Intentions Are on the Rise

According to the latest results from ABTA’s Travel Confidence Index¹, the nation is feeling more confident about travelling overseas now than it was at the same time last year.

The Index reveals a score of +47 for the UK population overall²; up 6 points compared with last year.

How people booked and travelled significantly affects how confident they feel, with those who booked with a travel professional remaining very confident at +72 and those who took a package holiday in the past year returning an even higher score of +74 (up from +70 last year).

While families (+62) and 25-34-year-olds (+60) remain the most confident, all age groups 64 and under returned more positive scores this year, with the biggest year-on-year increase in confidence among those aged 45-54 (up from +34 to +50). The only age group to have lost confidence to travel is those aged 65+, with a score of +26, down from +33 last year.

First launched in October 2023, the Travel Confidence Index is an annual measure of the nation’s confidence levels, which tracks any changes among different age groups or certain types of travellers and identifies the most effective actions that the industry can take each year to collectively build consumer confidence.

When it comes to the fundamental areas that travel companies should focus on to build consumer confidence to travel, helping customers get the correct documents for travel (eg valid passport or visa) continues to be the most important area, with this rated ‘essential’ by 71% of respondents.

Areas seeing the biggest year-on-year increase were being able to get home if their travel company goes bust (rated essential by 58%), good health and safety standards at their accommodation (rated essential by 48%), and having a welcoming and safe environment on holiday (rated essential by 46%) – highlighting the importance of reassuring customers on these points during the booking process or via marketing activity.

Booking with an ABTA member provided the same level of reassurance as last year (being rated essential by 41% of respondents), so ABTA members should make sure they’re taking advantage of this confidence boost by displaying their membership credentials.

Graeme Buck, Director of Communications at ABTA – The Travel Association, said:

“With the Travel Confidence Index now in its second year, this is our first opportunity to compare  data and start identifying any trends or changes in sentiment.

“It’s really encouraging to see that the nation’s overall confidence to travel is up – and up significantly among certain groups. It’s also brilliant to see that booking with a travel professional continues to foster such high levels of confidence too, which is testament to the exceptional work our members do to make sure their customers are prepared, informed and ultimately have an amazing holiday.

“However, it is slightly concerning to see confidence dropping among the over 65s, who have traditionally had a very strong interest in travel and are a large customer base for our members. Our research suggests they’ve become increasingly risk averse and are significantly reassured by travel insurance, protections against company insolvency and booking with an ABTA member – so businesses targeting this age group should make sure they raise awareness of these points in their interactions with customers.”

The Travel Confidence Index is available to read in full here and will also be part of ABTA’s Holiday Habits 2024-25 report which will be released during ABTA’s 2024 Travel Convention in Greece from 7-9 October.

About the research 
¹Statistics are from ABTA’s annual Holiday Habits survey, carried out each summer by The Nursery Research and Planning with a nationally representative sample of 2,000 UK adults. The 2024 survey took place during the last week of July and the first week of August 2024 and the 2023 survey took place during the last two weeks of August 2023.

²The Travel Confidence Index scores are calculated by asking all respondents to rate on a scale of 1 to 10 how confident they are currently feeling about taking an overseas holiday, with 1 being not confident at all and 10 being extremely confident. Excluding those who rate their confidence levels as neutral (5 to 6 out of 10), the scores are calculated by taking away the percentage of those with low confidence levels (1 to 4) from the percentage of those with high confidence levels (7 to 10).

The overall score of +47 is generated by taking away the 21% of respondents who said they had low confidence levels (1-4) from the 68% of respondents who said they had high confidence levels (7-10).