Spain remained the top destination from the UK by some margin despite a 20% fall in UK visitor numbers between 2005 and 2010, according industry analyst Mintel’s Holiday Review.
The consumer survey found the country’s 9.6 million UK tourists put it well ahead of France on 6.9 million, down 5% on 2005. No other destination came near to such numbers.
Turkey showed a 23% increase in UK visitors since 2005 to record just less than 1.5 million arrivals last year. But it remained below the US, Italy, Greece and Portugal, according to Mintel estimates. However, these destinations all showed a decline over the past five years: the US by 31%, Italy by 28%, Greece by 27% and Portugal by 10%.
Turkey was the only destination in the UK top 10 to show growth. Egypt grew even faster over the period with UK visitor numbers rising 48%, making it the 14th most-popular destination.
The inner core of the European Union – made up largely of eurozone countries – continued to attract more than two-thirds (68%) of all UK leisure trips despite a decline of almost seven million in the numbers travelling to these countries between 2007 and 2010.
The pound fell 20% in value against the euro between 2005 and last year – the decline coming largely in 2007 and 2008.
UK holidaymakers’ cash also deteriorated sharply against the currencies of Australia (-30%), Canada (-20%) and Thailand (-31%) in this period.
Mintel reports: “Up to one in five people who visited Turkey in the last five years state that the exchange rate was a reason they went.”