UK TRAVELLERS FEELING MORE CONFIDENT OF GOING OVERSEAS

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THE latest results from ABTA’s annual Travel Confidence Index, now in its third year, show the UK is feeling even more confident about travelling overseas.

The Index reveals a score of +53 for the UK population overall; up six points compared with last year, and up 12 points since ABTA introduced the index in 2023. 

How people booked and travelled significantly affects how confident they feel, with those who booked with a travel professional remaining very confident at +78 (up six points from +72 last year) and those who took a package holiday in the past year returning an even higher score of +80 (up six points from +74).

It’s younger people where the Travel Confidence Index has increased the most – among 18–24-year-olds, it’s up nine points from +48 to +57, and among 25–34-year-olds it’s up 19 points from +60 to +79.  

25-34-year-olds (+79), and 35-44-year-olds (+64) are now the most confident and well above the overall index score of +53. In addition to this, families’ confidence increased to +71. At the other end of the scale, the 65+ age group, while having the lowest confidence, still has a positive score of +33 overall, up from +26 in 2024. 

When it comes to the areas that travel companies should focus on to build consumer confidence to travel, helping customers get the correct documents for travel (eg valid passport or visa) continues to be the most important area, with this rated ‘essential’ by 68 per cent of respondents.

This was followed in priority by being able to get home if their travel company goes bust (rated essential by 56%), knowing the total price in advance (54 per cent), taking out travel insurance ( 53 per cent), and having financial protection (in case my travel company goes bust) (50 per cent) – highlighting the importance of reassuring customers on these points during the booking process or in marketing activity.

Mark Tanzer, Chief Executive, ABTA – The Travel Association, said: “A core purpose of ABTA is to help people travel with confidence. We introduced the Travel Confidence Index both to help our understanding of consumer sentiment in travel and to identify the most effective actions that the industry can take collectively to build consumer confidence – so, it’s really encouraging to see that the UK’s overall confidence to travel overseas continues its upwards trend.

“It’s also reassuring to see that booking with an ABTA member continues to be rated essential or important by 75 per cent of people to give them confidence to travel.  This is testament to the work of ABTA members in making sure their customers are advised, informed and prepared to have an amazing holiday.”

The Travel Confidence Index is available to read in full here – https://www.abta.com/sites/default/files/2025-10/Travel%20Confidence%20Index%202025.pdf.