Study Shows Holiday Spending Has Fallen

A study by Visa Europe has found that spending among Britons fell by more than £560 million last year, compared to 2008. Spending in the US fell by £178 million to £1.45 billion, in Spain by £117 million to £1.71 billion and in France by £83 million to £1.40 billion.

More than two-fifths of those questioned said the strength of the pound had an impact on their travel destination. The analysis of transactions by 86 million UK Via cardholders found that total spending abroad fell by 4% and so did the number of transactions (falling from 134 million to 128 million).

Accommodation spending dropped by 14% while spending on car rental fell by a quarter - from £65 million to £49 million.

Visa Europe head of debit Tony Gibbons said that due to the economic climate, in the last 12 months the company had seen a “slight slow down” in card spend abroad; “The global downturn hasn’t put us off travelling; instead we’ve scaled back our spending and are looking to extract as much value from our trips as possible. For example, people are shifting spend from eating out to eating in. As people start to travel abroad again, we expect to see spend pick up over the next few years” he said.