Spending on travel maintained double digit growth last month as the sector maintained its position as one of the top performers of the year.
September consumer card outlay on travel was up by 13.2%, with travel agents seeing a monthly rise of 7.1% and 10.6% growth in transaction value, according to new Barclays data.
The amount spent on airlines soared by almost a third year-on-year with growth in transactions of 28.7%.
Barclays said: “Travel, which has been one of the best-performing categories in 2023, continued its double-digit growth (13.2%).
“Much of this uplift is driven by demand for holidays abroad, with spending on airlines up 31.1%.
“Consumers are also on the lookout for ‘surge pricing’ – almost half have noticed companies, such as hotels, airlines and pub chains, raising prices during peak times.”
Continued outlay on travel came despite consumers cutting spending on other discretionary items.
The Barclays report found a 4.6% rise in spending on essential items, driven by grocery shopping and rising fuel prices.
Overall consumer card spending grew 4.2% – less than the inflation rate of 6.3% but higher than the August growth figure of 2.8%, the bank said.
Barclays chief UK economist Jack Meaning said: “Over the last few months a picture has been building of consumers beginning to pull back on discretionary spending as the cost of living, and monetary tightening from the Bank of England increasingly bite.
“We’ve seen the warning signs from surveys, and now we see it in the more concrete spending data.
“This suggests the outlook for consumers, and the businesses that rely on them, is weak, even as they finally see their disposable incomes rise faster than inflation.
“It makes it hard to see anything but a relatively stagnant economy on the horizon.”
Barclays director Esme Harwood added: “Consumers are also starting to pull back their spending in some non-essential areas, so that they can put more money aside for the festive season.”