As many as 15% of people plan to take more holidays in 2024, new Barclays research reveals on the back of a strong bookings month in December.
Meanwhile, one in 10 (11%) have been saving up to afford a bigger holiday this year and 10% will be taking advantage of deals in the January peak sale period.
Beach holidays (44%), city breaks (37%), and adventure holidays (12%) are the most popular types of getaways being booked, while the UK (47%), Spain (24%), and Greece (12%) are the top destinations.
Barclays consumer card spending data for December shows another positive month for the travel sector, with spend growth with travel agents up 12.8% and with airlines up 20.2%.
Both saw even stronger growth than in November (14% and 9.2% respectively) as holidaymakers booked getaways for 2024, according to the study which showed overall spend on travel rising by 14.1%, with transactions up by 13.7% over November.
Transactions through travel agents rose by 18.7% and airlines by almost 16%.
Entertainment and travel thrived as consumers booked experiences and getaways for 2024, according to Barclays.
The ongoing increases in spend on travel once again outstripped other sectors, with overall outlay on cards growing just 2.3% year-on-year in December.
The bank’s chief UK economist Jack Meaning said:“We saw inflation fall significantly at the end of 2023, and we expect it to fall further in the opening months of 2024.
“This puts more spending power in the pockets of UK consumers and should help support them to continue to spend, even against the tough backdrop of weak economic growth.
“It’s also encouraging to see tentative signs of an improving mortgage market; approvals have begun to rise and mortgage rates are continuing to fall.
“However, it’s worth remembering that many people this year will still be dropping off of fixed-term mortgages onto new deals with higher rates than they had previously, eating away at some of their newly found spending power.”