Foreign travel topping consumers' spending list – Barclays

The Barclays Consumer Spend report combines hundreds of millions of customer transactions with consumer research to provide an overview of UK spending.

It notes that while total spending grew, the 1.9% year on year increase is “significantly lower” than inflation, adding that the drop in face-to-face retail “was a major contributor to this slowdown”.

However, it added: “Reassuringly, concerns about inflation, rising food prices and increasing household bills eased, while confidence in non-essential spending reached a two-year high.”

Another boost to discretionary spend was that food price inflation, at 7%, was the lowest since April 2022.

However, one cautionary note for the travel industry was the growing awareness of “drip pricing” where extras are added at checkout when shopping online.

Barclays found 32% of consumers were aware of these when booking airline tickets, while 37% named drip pricing as their biggest shopping frustration when paying online, with another 28% naming dynamic pricing as an irritation.