Brits are so bored of Brexit they're leaving the country
British holidaymakers are now more worried about missing out on holiday bargains than the remote prospect of Brexit disrupting travel
British holidaymakers have got so bored of waiting for politicians to resolve the Brexit deadlock, they're back to booking holidays pretty much as normal. According to the latest travel market data, after months of travel uncertainty British travellers are now just getting on with planning their summer breaks. And with the prospect of a "no deal" Brexit receding, and some great holiday deals available for canny travellers, the fear now is no longer that flights might be grounded - people are more concerned about missing out on the holiday bargain of a lifetime.
Holiday Extras, the UK market leader in hassle-free travel, has been running a regular poll of its customers since September last year to understand how Brexit uncertainty has been affecting holiday plans. It's asked more than 5,000 British holidaymakers in a bi-monthly poll over the past six months questions about the impact of Brexit on travel.
Consistently, the company has seen two patterns. Each survey goes out to more than a 1,000 respondents, and every time one or two people have said that Brexit uncertainty has caused them to cancel an overseas trip to ensure they received a refund. Consistently 7%-8% of respondents to each survey (so around 100 travellers each time) have said they've delayed making holiday plans while they wait to see how Brexit pans out.
Travelling in the Brexit interregnum
Holiday Extras has written a number of helpful guides for the precautions you'll need to take while travelling during and after Brexit.
- First up, check out our main guide to How Brexit Will Affect Your Holiday
- Then, try our one-page flowchart that tells you everything (OK, almost everything) you need for a Brexit-proof holiday
- Finally, take a look at our big list of Brexit-proof destinations for 2019
The latest survey, conducted last week on 1,469 British holidaymakers, shows a new pattern. For the first time, not a single one of the people asked said they'd cancelled a trip due to Brexit. And a mere 50 travellers - 3.5%, or less than half those in previous surveys - said they were still waiting to see what happened with Brexit. Now that summer's nearly here, everyone else is just getting on and booking their holidays.
Brexit - a brief explainer of the current state of play
Update: 23rd May 2019
What's going on with Brexit this week?
In theory, we were set to leave the EU on Thursday 12th April. In the event, we negotiated another extension, this time to 31st October.
Clearly there's still some debate about what happens next - but unless we crash out with no deal at all before the end of our extension, which is generally considered a remote possibility, the Easter and summer holidays this year should all run as normal. Perhaps it's no surprise therefore that holiday planning is back in full swing.
Seamus McCauley, Editor at Holiday Extras, said, "Even with parliament still undecided about Brexit and our leaving date nominally set for this Thursday, our customers are voting with their wallets and getting on with their holiday planning.
"The number of customers who say they've postponed a holiday booking has halved. The number who've cancelled one has fallen to zero for the first time since we starting asking the question last September. More than 360,000 of our customers tell us they've booked a holiday to an EU country after 12th April, and even the share of customers going to the EU is up on last year by 6%.
"Brexit wasn't causing any great panic even before now. Only 8% of travellers ever said they were waiting to make plans. But with Easter here and the summer holidays on the horizon, it's clear that people just aren't going to let the government's indecision stop them booking their weeks in the sun"
Book your holiday extras early
It pays to book your airport parking, airport hotel or your lounge as soon as you book your flights. Prices usually go up nearer the date you fly, and last year Holiday Extras saved our airport parking customers £59 each on average when they pre-booked their airport parking instead of paying on the day.
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