The travel trends and buzzwords agents can't afford to ignore next year

Another trend is the rising number of Brits – labelled “Shoulder Shoppers” – wanting to travel in spring, rather than summer. However, this is a returning trend as it was first identified by Abta before the pandemic.

Research in Abta’s latest Holiday Habits report shows 48% of travellers want to travel in March, April and May compared to 46% of the consumers polled who want to go overseas in the summer months.

Buck told delegates at Abta’s Travel Trends conference: “A lot of companies are recognising this trend and making sure that they have an offer for those other seasons as well.”

But he added: “You might ask whether this is the end of the traditional summer break? But 46% are looking to have a summer holiday abroad, which is a very healthy figure and does not indicate that we’re at the beginning of the end of the traditional summer break.”

Buck highlighted how older and younger demographics were likely to be behind this trend. “We think that ‘shoulder shoppers’ are going to be at opposite ends of that age profile,” he added. “It’s probably a function of people taking more holidays.

“It’s logical if people are going to take two or three holidays a year, they’re not all going to be in the holidays.”

He added: “We think it’s quite a value-driven thing because you’re still seeing some strong summer figures after all the heatwaves and wildfires.” 

A “neophile” is anyone who wants something new or novel. One question Abta asked the 2,000 people polled for its Holiday Habits report was how likely they were to go to a country or resort/ city that they had not been to before.

Around 47% said they were “likely” to try a new city/resort, while 41% said they were probably going to book a holiday to a new country in the next 12 months. “We found the numbers of people wanting to try something new is very much on the up,” Buck noted.

However, he added that while there was “considerable bounce back from the lows of 2020”, neophile numbers were still lower than in 2018. That year, 52% of people polled said they were willing to try a new city/resort and 45% said they would likely book a trip to a new country.

“Numbers declined during Covid,” said Buck, adding: “We’re not quite there yet, but the numbers are getting there and my bet would be that this will continue over the next year or so ahead.”

Neil Sealy, managing director of tour operator Exoticca, said customers were looking further afield to destinations, such as Peru and Japan, which they might not have been to before. But he stressed customers were still looking for a “a really good price to get to that destination”.

Speaking about post-pandemic travel trends, Anne Williams, managing director for Inghams, Esprit Ski and Santa’s Lapland, said Inghams’ walking holidays were attracting “a new audience” of people who loved walking during the pandemic and now wanted to pursue their new-found passion on holiday.

She added that the company saw “a huge surge for our Lapland programme from families and older couples that want to see the Northern Lights” as the world came out of the pandemic. “We were not sure whether that was going to die down. It has died down, but it has stayed steady,” Williams said. 

Holidaymakers surveyed were asked to pick from a list of sustainability actions driven by the need to be more environmentally conscious.

The list included choosing a destination closer to the UK; choosing a company with a better environmental and social record over another; or taking the train or another form of transport to avoid flying.

Abta found that the younger travellers were “more likely to have paid more to go on an environmental social holiday”.

Around 18% of travellers between 18 and 24 said they paid more for a holiday with a company because it had a better environmental and social record. This number fell to 3% among the 65-plus age demographic at the other end of the age scale.

Buck said: “You can see that 18-24-year-olds are taking more [sustainability] action, by a considerable margin, compared with the average consumer.”