The rising cost of living is having an increasing impact on holiday choices with four out of five UK consumers saying it is affecting their travel decisions, according to latest research.
Concerns are highest in Scotland where 84% of adults say cost-of-living increases are having an impact, according to a survey this month by research firm 56 Degree Insight for the latest Scottish Tourism Index.
Half the respondents in the survey (50%) reported rising prices had a ‘major impact’ on the type of trip or destination they chose.
An associated survey by researcher Yonder Data Solutions found 77% of adults in the UK agreed about the impact on travel, with two in five (40%) reporting the cost of living had a ‘major impact’.
Rising fuel prices are also having an effect, with 70% in the Scottish survey and 65% in the UK study reporting they are having an impact on holiday decisions.
The studies found Covid-19 also continues to influence decision making, especially on overseas travel, with 61% of adults in Scotland and 58% in the UK saying it had an impact on their travel choices.
Airport disruption was a factor considered by more than half the respondents in both surveys – 52% in Scotland and 54% in the UK.
The 56 Degree Insight survey of more than 1,000 Scots at the beginning of August found almost three quarters (73%) expect to take a holiday this year, compared with 65% in England, 67% in Wales and 70% in Northern Ireland.
But almost half the respondents in Scotland (48%) had taken or planned to take domestic holidays.
Spain was the number-one overseas holiday destination for consumers in Scotland by a wide margin with 16% choosing it for a holiday.
France was the choice of 5% and Greece and the US 4% each followed by Italy, Portugal and Germany on 3% apiece, with the researchers noting: “Long-haul travel continues to be somewhat depressed.”
Three out of five respondents in Scotland had already taken a holiday and one in five (19%) had been overseas.
More than one in four (29%) planned to go away in September and a similar proportion (27%) in October.
Fifteen UK domestic destinations ranked ahead of all other overseas destinations except Spain in the Scottish survey.
56 Degree Insight surveyed 1,007 adults in Scotland on August 1-2. Yonder Data Solutions surveyed more than 2,100 UK adults around the same time.