Abta has hailed “remarkable positivity” about overseas trips after unveiling its first ‘Travel Confidence Index’ based on a survey of 2,000 UK adults.
The travel trade body revealed the research results today (Monday, October 30), as delegates gathered in Bodrum for its annual convention.
A score of +41 was recorded for the UK population overall when a representative sample was asked how confident they were feeling about overseas travel, with package holidaymakers and people who book with travel professionals being among the most confident – generating scores of +70 and +72 respectively.
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Abta communications director Graeme Buck (pictured) said: “Given the extreme heat and wildfires in some holiday destinations this year, and that the National Air Traffic Service (Nats) outage happened during the period in which we interviewed respondents, a score of +41 does show some remarkable positivity among the UK population.”
Higher-than-average confidence was shown by those aged 25-34 (+53) as well as families (+52), while the over-65s were among those feeling less confident than average (+33).
Abta said the index can also help travel businesses know how to build customers’ confidence, as respondents were asked to rank a range of ‘confidence boosters’ as ‘essential’, ‘important’, ‘nice to have’ or ‘not important’.
The top-rated essential elements were knowing they had a valid passport and/or visa, which was rated as essential by 67%, followed by taking out travel insurance (54%).
Abta said travel companies can “clearly add value by helping their customers get these travel fundamentals in place”.
Other essential elements were linked to financial concerns and pointed to the role that package holidays can play in delivering consumer confidence, Abta said.
A total of 53% of respondents rated being able to get home if their travel company goes bust as essential, while 49% regarded knowing the total price in advance as essential and 49% also regarded having financial protection in case their travel company goes bust as essential.
Two in five (41%) people said booking with an Abta member was essential, while a further 35% said it was important.
Buck said: “We’ll be continuing to support our members’ efforts to boost their customers’ confidence however we can.”
He added: “A fundamental part of Abta’s role is to help people ‘travel with confidence’ and it is one of the reasons why people respect the Abta brand so much.
“By launching our Travel Confidence Index, we plan to provide an annual measure of how confident people are feeling about overseas travel and why, so the industry can capitalise on positive sentiment.”
The Travel Confidence Index, which is available to read in full on the Abta website, will be discussed at The Travel Convention on Wednesday, November 1.
The statistics came from Abta’s Holiday Habits 2023/24, for which The Nursery Research and Planning Ltd carried out a survey in the last two weeks of August.