One in five Bits defied repeated warnings from politicians and experts to stay at home in order to take an overseas holiday in the past year, according to research released by WTM London.
Results from the WTM Industry Report, which polled 1,000 UK consumers, found 21% of Brits took a holiday of seven days or more in the 12 months to August 2021, with 4% of those having both an overseas trip and a staycation.
A further 29% took a staycation only, while 51% did not go on holiday at all in the past year.
Those who travelled abroad for a seven-day break or longer did so despite repeated pleas from government ministers and health advisers not to travel, amid fears Covid could spread further.
At various times in the past 18 months, travel both within and from the UK has been halted because of Covid, including during much of the first three months of 2021, when overseas travel was illegal.
When overseas travel was permitted from May 17, it was reintroduced with a traffic light system and government ministers and medical experts repeatedly urged people to forego their annual overseas holiday in order to help contain Covid.
Former health secretary Matt Hancock, for example, advised people to plan for a “great British summer” and then-foreign secretary Dominic Raab said it was “too early” for Brits to book summer breaks overseas in January and prime minister Boris Johnson said in May that British holidaymakers should not go to amber-list countries except in “extreme” circumstances.
But people continued to travel despite the messages from leaders and restrictions such as Covid tests and the threat of quarantine.
More people from London holidayed abroad in the last 12 months than from any other UK region, with 41% of those polled saying they had taken an overseas holiday of seven days or more and only 36% saying they hadn’t had a holiday at all.
Those least likely to have taken an overseas holiday were from the northeast, with 63% of people from this region saying they had not had a holiday at all, 13% saying they’d taken an overseas holiday and 25% saying they’d taken a staycation.
WTM London exhibition director, Simon Press, said: “The results speak for themselves – the traditional overseas summer holiday is seen by many Brits as a necessity, not a luxury, and few were prepared to give up their seven or 14 days in the sun over the past 12 months because of concerns over Covid.
“That’s despite having to take expensive Covid tests, risk traffic-light changes and go against a barrage of advice from leaders to stay at home.”