Travel marketing takeaways from ABTA’s 2025 Holiday Habits report
Now in its tenth year, the Holiday Habits report is ABTA’s annual deep dive into the sentiments, attitudes, preferences, and plans of the UK travelling public – based on a survey of 2,000 adults conducted during July and August. Released at the recent ABTA Convention in Calvia, the 2025 edition is once again loaded with actionable insights that travel marketers can use to inform their strategies for the year ahead.
Here are the takeaways which caught the eye of the Llamas.
For us, the key themes arising from the report’s findings can be distilled into the Three Rs – Resilience, Ringfencing, and Responsibility. ABTA’s data is a reminder of how resilient the UK travel market is, with the number of people taking a holiday in the last 12 months at 87% - the highest it's been since 2019 (and since the p-word began). Travel is uniquely vulnerable to forces beyond its control, but wildfires, geo-political strife, and economic uncertainty haven’t dented the determination of UK consumers to see the world. With the data indicating that figure will increase again in 2026, this means it’s a seller’s market. Is your marketing strategy optimised to get your share of it?
Which brings us to our second ‘R’ – ringfencing. Despite the ongoing pressure on household budgets, holidays are the last discretionary spend that respondents to ABTA’s survey will cut back on to manage the cost of living. Out go cinema trips, the latest iPhone, or trying that new restaurant in town – so long as it means they still get to take the 3.8 holidays a year that the data says is the average number taken by UK consumers in the last 12 months.
But as much as this sounds like good news, it’s a double-edged sword. The flip side of the sacrifices consumers make to ensure they can take a holiday is the responsibility (that’s our third R) travel brands have to ensure they’re offering reliably good value – and for marketers to be messaging that accordingly. That doesn’t mean being cheap – according to the data, 85% of Brits expect to spend about the same or more on their holidays in the coming year. But it does mean leaning into the benefits, services, and products which are the proof points of your differentiation.
There is much more besides in ABTA’s report which should be of interest to travel marketers. It emphasised again the generational divide that characterises the sources consumers use for holiday inspiration, research, and booking – reiterating both the need for a carefully segmented channel and media strategy, and the opportunity for hyper-personalised communications. It also highlighted the accelerating influence of AI on that inspiration to booking journey and the need for marketers to be at the sharp end of that disruption. And in a different definition of our third ‘R’, the report again shows that people continue to grow in awareness about the extractive nature of travel, and want to know they’re travelling responsibly. This is especially acute among younger consumers - but get it right with them, you might have their loyalty for life. So, out with the greenwashing, and in with authentic and genuine initiatives.
Finally, in some respects, ABTA’s report indicates that the last 12 months weren’t that different from the 12 before, and things won’t change much in the next. The same destinations are the most popular, the same types of holiday, and the same preference for packages and using agents to book (for the same reasons). But 'no change' shouldn’t mean ‘don’t change’. In a market that is seemingly poised to grow, and against a backdrop of accelerating technological innovation, travel marketers have the opportunity to demonstrate real value - and even take some risks. If you want those risks to be grounded in data, ABTA’s report is a good place to start. So with a final three-R rhetorical flourish, for travel marketers Holiday Habits 2025 is required reading, really.
