Millions of British holiday makers are abandoning plans for foreign travel and embarking on "staycations", figures show, as economists predict the trend will provide a major boost to the UK economy.
Tourism boards across the UK are reporting record-breaking numbers of bookings and inquiries over the past few weeks, suggesting workers will pump billions of pounds back into the UK instead of spending their cash abroad.
Visit East Anglia said inquiries and bookings were up by around 25pc in popular resorts such as Norfolk in recent weeks, and Yorkshire also reporting a sharp increase in interest.
Last night experts said the boost "could not come at a better time" and claimed British families choosing to holiday at home would have a "disproportionately" positive fiscal effect.
Justin Urquart Stewart, economist and director at Seven Investment Management, said: "More people holidaying in the UK will hugely boost our economy at a time when we greatly need it. "Families spend around 20pc of their net incomes on holidays so the impact will be disproportionately large. As demand rises prices of UK AirBnb and hotel rooms will increase very quickly too, however."
"Staycations" have been steadily gaining popularity since the start of the year with a record-breaking 7.3 million people holidaying in England in the first quarter of 2016, up 10pc compared to the same period in 2015, according to Visit England.
Separate research by vouchercodes.co.uk, which sells last-minute discounted holidays, predicts an extra 2.5 million people, or 5pc of the British population, will decide to holiday at home this year.
In recent months families' plans for trips abroad are being thwarted by an amalgamation of factors which travel experts say are causing record numbers to shun the traditional "week in the sun" for a holiday on home soil.
European holidays have escalated in price as the spending power of holiday money has been savaged by the falling value of the pound, which has dropped 10pc against the euro since Britain voted to leave the EU on June 23.
Holidays to such countries now cost the average family of four £245 more then they did prior to the vote, figures from TravelSupermarket show.
Another major concern is the threat of terror attacks in once-popular destinations such as Egypt, Turkey and France, as families fear for their safety.
Holidays to Egypt have nearly halved following the downing of a Russian passenger plane in October 2015 official figures show, while the number of tourists arriving in Turkey has fallen for nine consecutive months to 1.75 million in April this year, 28 per cent down on the same period last year.
In May the Eurostar tunnel, which connects London to Paris, reported a drop in passenger figures following the Paris and Brussels terror attacks, with passenger numbers falling by 100,000 to 2.2 million in the first three months of the year.
And last Friday holidaymakers were further spooked when around 140,000 people's pre-booked trips were thrown into chaos when travel website Lowcostholidays filed for administration.
Customers were informed they would lose virtually the entire cost of their holidays, as the firm was not ATOL protected and had accepted their payments but failed to secure their hotel, transfer and flight bookings.
With fewer people booking trips, holiday firms are thought to be crumbling behind the scenes, leading to a sharp rise in shoddy holidays, according to Citizens Advice, a consumer charity.
Today it is reporting a 35pc rise in travel firms breaching their terms and conditions over the past year, with thousands providing substandard accommodation, booking customers onto flights that don't exist and swapping people’s holidays without offering them a chance to cancel.
The most popular destination for British holidaymakers travelling overseas this summer is the Mediterranean, figures from the Association of British Travel Agents shows, with bookings to Portugal up 23pc year-on-year, with a 22pc rise in trips to Spain over the same period.
Patricia Yates, Director at Visit England, said: “Britain looks particularly good value at the moment because of the value of the pound. Beach and countryside holidays are growing in popularity and are helped by the rise of glamping and AirBnB.
"Once popular destinations such as Egypt and Turkey now look much less safe than they did in the past so there is already a shift away from those areas."
Russell Kett, chairman at Global Hospitality Services, which represents the hotel industry, said: The effect of a weaker pound post-Brexit referendum is good news for the UK hotel sector. UK travellers may also be persuaded to forego or shorten their foreign holidays and remain on home soil. This may also be boosted by some UK citizens being concerned to travel abroad to their usual holiday destinations in the wake of the recent terrorist attacks."
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