Foreword focus on sustainability is the one certainty
Desire for certainty on Britain’s future relationship with the EU may be satisfied one way or another by WKHbJHQHUDO HOHFWLRQ DV WKLV UHSRUW went to press. But we will await clarity on how the process plays out whatever the outcome. This is the fourth Insight Annual
Report since the 2016 Brexit referendum and the main concerns of the travel industry have not changed. The sector requires maintenance of flying arrangements, friction-free borders, thriving economies, stable exchange rates, skilled personnel and so on. What comes next may not entirely
measure up. Yet despite a clouded economic outlook and the preoccupations of the past 12 months, demand for travel remains undiminished. Trends previously identified have
strengthened over the past year. All-inclusive bookings have become such a mainstay of the outbound market that one-in-two holidaymakers intend to book all-inclusive in 2020. Smartphone bookings are rising,
SRVLQJ D FKDOOHQJH WR KLJKbVWUHHW DJHQWV Yet the liquidation of Thomas Cook proved less of a death knell for the high street than an opportunity for renewal as the UK’s largest independent agency chain swallowed Cook’s retail RXWOHWVbZKROH Consumer research findings
run through this report, along with supporting data, and senior figures at Deloitte provide commentary on the economic outlook, investment, latest trends in technology (especially aviation), cyber security, the workplace and, crucially, sustainability. Like it or not, this issue will most define the future. Rapid progress is now required to
reduce fossil fuel emissions. The UN Environment Programme (UNEP) annual Emissions Gap Report, published in November, provided sobering reading. It noted: “Greenhouse gas emissions
6 Travel Weekly Insight Report 2019-20
Despite a clouded economic outlook and the preoccupations of the past 12 months, demand for travel remains undiminished
continued to rise . . . at 1.5% per year in the last decade. There is no sign of emissions peaking.” A 55% reduction in emissions by
2030 is required “to put the world on the pathway to limiting warming to 1.5C”. By contrast, business newspaper the Financial Times reported: “Existing global pledges to reduce emissions will correspond to more than 3C of warming by the end of the century.” Growing anxiety about the climate
was reflected in a rise in awareness of the impact of flying and the ‘flight shame’ (flygskam) movement in Sweden. Whether this will spread remains to be seen, but unchecked growth can’t be assumed – perhaps leading to new pressure for carbon taxes or fresh doubt over a third runway at Heathrow. I am grateful to all at Deloitte for their
help in producing this report, indebted to Tom Costley of Service Science for arranging the Kantar research and grateful to David Hope of GfK for his insight on outbound booking trends. Any faults are my own.
Ian Taylor
executive editor, Travel Weekly ian.taylor@
travelweekly.co.uk
THE CHARTS (page 7) represent
UK holiday taking in 2019. Figures 1, 2 and 4 are self-explanatory. Note the increase in overseas
holidays among 16 to 34-year-olds and decline among older adults. Figure 3 shows a breakdown of
those taking overseas holidays by age and the proportion by region; 24% of overseas holidaymakers
taking two or more breaks in 2019 travelled with children, 39% were over 55 and 71% in social class ABC1. These are not the same as
the proportions within these groups taking two or more holidays – 20% of those with children, 23% of over-55s and 29% of ABC1s
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