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Britons say cost of living concerns key barrier to foreign travel

New research carried out by Ipsos has found almost two-thirds of Brits are unlikely to visit a country outside Europe this year.

Of the 1,024 people surveyed by the market research and consulting firm, 63% said they had no plans to travel outside of Europe in 2022, while nearly half (47%) said the same for travelling within the continent.

Almost half (49%) of Brits cited financial concerns as the main reason for not wanting to travel, while around one in seven said airport and port delays were putting them off.


More: Government fires industry warning shot over ‘unacceptable’ flight disruption


Seven in 10 Brits (71%) said they were likely to stay at home or do various day trips from where they live in the next 12 months, while a similar proportion said they were likely to go somewhere in the UK away from their home (69%).

Since the turn of 2022, under one in five (17%) people surveyed have been on holiday to Europe while only 8% have been away to somewhere outside Europe.

Four in 10 (39%) have gone somewhere in the UK where they stayed at least one night while a quarter have been on a “staycation” (26%). Three in 10 (31%) have been on none of these types of holiday so far this year.

Keiran Pedley, research director at Ipsos, said: “We know from other Ipsos research that the rising cost of living is a major concern for the British public at the moment. Therefore, it is no surprise that these concerns are putting some off foreign travel this year.”

Of those unlikely to travel abroad, either within or outside Europe, the top six reasons given were:

• 49% cite financial concerns / cost of living / too expensive as a reason
• 25% say they don’t have a valid passport
• 23% say they still have concerns about COVID-19
• 20% prefer to holiday in the UK
• 18% say it is too much hassle or inconvenience to travel
• 15% cite concerns about delays at ports / airports as a barrier to travel.

Ipsos interviewed a representative quota sample of 1,024 adults aged 16-75 in Great Britain for this survey.

Interviews took place on the online Omnibus using the Ipsos.Digital platform between May 18-19, 2022. Data has been weighted to the known offline population proportions.

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