When I was a kid growing up in the UK, we never dreamed of “going abroad” for a holiday, it was just too costly. Instead, we would make our yearly pilgrimage to our chosen UK destination, quite often staying in a caravan on a holiday park, somewhere like Blackpool or Bognor Regis. One year we got really adventurous and hired a boat on the Norfolk Broads for a week! We just never considered a foreign holiday.
These days it is often cheaper to travel abroad, certainly to closer destinations, than it is to stay at home, air travel costs have plummeted in the last two decades and tour providers have become efficient and cost effective. Have you ever considered why so many older people like to head to Spain for the winter? Simple, it’s cheaper than staying at home and paying for heating fuel through the British winter, lower cost of living, cheaper food, bargain rates, all of these things add up to make off-peak holidays amazing value.
Is this all likely to change soon though? With the global economy going down the tubes, and the rising price of oil forcing up air travel costs at an alarming rate, will package providers be able to maintain the current low cost of vacations? Prices are creeping up across the board, travel, food, accommodation, everything is getting more and more expensive to source, it can only be a matter of time before the large travel companies are forced to reverse their trend of yearly price cuts.
It is not so hard to imagine a time when it once again becomes more economical to stay at home for your annual holiday, due to the cost of travel and accommodation in a foreign country being too high. I can only begin to imagine the effect this would have on the tired old holiday destinations scattered around the UK, many of which are almost deserted in this day and age except on Public Holidays. I cannot help to think that this would be a beneficial direction in many ways, all of that holiday cash being spent at home, instead of lining the pockets of some foreign country, what a delightful though, the British holiday interest in full swing once again, now if only we could do something about the weather.
