An expert has shared the biggest problems Brits who want to get away on holiday are facing – and there’s a long list of factors.
Seamus McCauley, head of public affairs at Holiday Extras, said: “We’ve been running a survey for the last four years where we ask Brits what they think might interrupt their travel plans next year.
“We’ve asked the same question each year, and we’ve got a fairly rich figure going back over those four years to find out.
“This year, there’s fairly clear patterns. The biggest ones are certain types of extreme weather events, anti-tourism, particularly in certain destinations, and strikes at destinations.
“There’s an aftermath of the past in various factors, conflicts in the Middle East and Ukraine are factors which people consider.”
Mr McCauley continued: “The cost-of-living is one factor along with, for example, severe floods on roads and other parts of the Greek islands.
“Again, with extreme flooding and extreme weather events, that is quite a big factor for travellers by the response to our survey.
“In the Canary Islands, Costa Del Sol, and in a lot of other places, there’s been clear anti-tourism protests and fairly obvious anti-tourist sentiments against British travellers.
“In Venice and Barcelona, there’s a number of places which are implementing policies designed to limit the number of tourists.
“We’ve seen the same sort of protests on the streets, you’ve got policies in Barcelona, you’ve got the Tourist Act in Venice to limit cruise ships, you’ve got explicit policies in Sudan to reduce the number of tourists coming over and increase the demographic change.”
Mr McCauley said that according to his research, Amsterdam’s tourism has been down 12% year-on-year since announcing tourist restrictions.
He added: “Tenerife and the Canary Islands remain the single biggest destination for UK tourism, but if tourism is discouraged, people are going to respond accordingly.”
Mr McCauley also said as part of research, Brits were asked whether the election of President Donald Trump would discourage people from coming to America, nearly 20% said it might.
Following the Labour Budget, Mr McCauley said this will impact how Brits travel, he said: “The major impact of the Labour budget in terms of travel is national insurance which is lower now than it’s been for a few years.
“The main impact of that on the travel industry is that people have to make very hard decisions about how to expand business plans for the next year. The cost of those tax rates is inevitably and ultimately passed on to consumers.
“Prices will go up if taxes go up, although there’s no guarantee on that yet. People aren’t simply going to swallow those costs, businesses are going to swallow those costs.
“As those costs are passed on, particularly when people are most concerned about how to factor in their travel plans, that’s going to impact the travel industry negatively.
“There’s a lot going on in travel and politics at the moment, particularly Europe’s decision to get rid of the EEA and our decision to keep the ETA.”
In summer 2025, travel destinations chosen by Brits could look different to the usual top choices.
