Holidays remain strong on the priority list of the British public’s 2009 spending tendencies.
A survey from PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) has found that 16 per cent of those polled would make their holiday the top spending priority for next year.
With the impending threat of recession, PwC have analysed a sample of British people to gauge public reaction to the credit crunch.
Unsurprisingly, the top spot was occupied by people repaying debt on credit cards, loans or overdrafts, with 20 per cent voting this their highest priority for their money in 2009.
PwC took the same poll back in March, at that time debt repayments featured seventh, the worry of debt is clearly praying on people’s minds. Encouragingly though, holidays were only slightly behind debt repayment, and took a strong second place with 16 per cent of the vote.
However, short breaks could suffer with last minute holidays and weekend excursions being lower down the priority list. London hotels and shopping trips with New York deals are likely to prove less popular next year.
Additional holidays slipped from second place to eighth. Only two per cent of people polled said they would spend money on a short break this coming year.
In a time of prudence and consolidation, frivolous spending on eating out, cinema and theatre trips, and clothes shopping is also likely to be severely reduced. Going out for meals, and shopping for garments both fell 8 places in the rankings.
PwC’s Malcolm Preston, the head of travel said that the emphasis had switched from discretionary short breaks to the one main holiday. In an interview with TravelMole.com he said the travel industry would normally be expecting much higher spending on holidays, “undoubtedly the industry is not immune to the downturn.”
Mr Preston remained positive: “However, these results show the UK consumer is still set on escaping the recession and depression and
Holidays remain strong on the priority list of the British public’s 2009 spending tendencies.
