Barclaycard data shows travel defied a general slowdown in spending at the end of last year and the growth in spending with travel agents outpaced that on hotels, resorts and accommodation in January and February.
Jamie Evans, Barclays Payments director for travel, hospitality and leisure, reported spending on all categories of travel was up 15% last year on 2019, behind the 21% growth in other ‘non-essential’ spending, but “travel spending held firm” in November and December when expenditure in other sectors slowed.
Evans told the recent Abta Travel Finance Conference in London that the figures “suggest customers are making cuts in spending but protecting travel spend”.
Separate Barclays card data for February, released last week, showed spending with travel agents up 10% year on year in February following 8% growth in January, well above the 1.9% increase in all card spending. By contrast, UK hotels and resorts saw just 0.3% growth.
Evans reported 55.1% of Barclaycard customers spent on travel in 2023, “an all-time high”, up from 54.8% in 2019 and 54.3% in 2018, with the average spend per customer up 15.8% on 2019 at £1,331.
Almost 65% of UK consumer spending abroad last year was in Europe, up from 62% in 2019, with spending in the Americas down from 15.5% in 2019 to 12.8% last year. Evans suggested: “That could be because the cost of flights was extortionate.”
The split between credit and debit card spending on travel was roughly 50:50, with Evans noting: “Spending on credit cards in other sectors is around 25%-30% [of the total]. So, the availability of credit is essential to travel.”
He also noted the growth in spending varied substantially by age, with younger adults aged 16-24 spending just 2.5% more last year than in 2019 compared with 15% among those aged 15-49 and 16% among 50-64-year-olds.”
The regional data was also revealing, with travel spending in London rising less than 5% between 2019 and 2023 compared with 14% in Eastern England, 15% in the Southeast and West Midlands, 16% in the Northwest, 18% in the Southwest and 19% in Yorkshire.
The Barclays data also showed a sharp recovery in payments offline following a wholesale move online during the pandemic.
Evans described the level of offline spending now as “quite consistent, an indication of the importance of expertise and investment in the high street”.
He reported: “The online share of travel spending, which was mid 80%-90% pre-Covid and hit 98% during the pandemic has returned to 81%.”
The Barclays data draws on the use of 17 million debit and credit cards issued in the UK.