UK Travel set for 2022 bounce-back

Young people less likely to travel this year, but not because of the situation in Ukraine
March 30, 2022

Fol­low­ing the Russ­ian inva­sion of Ukraine, ele­phant com­mis­sioned new mar­ket research this month to assess whether the out­break of war in East­ern Europe had impact­ed trav­el plans for British hol­i­day mak­ers for the East­er and Sum­mer peri­ods. Over­all, 16% of respon­dents said ram­i­fi­ca­tions of war in Ukraine was influ­enc­ing their trav­el plans, whilst 10% men­tioned the pre­vail­ing COVID sit­u­a­tion abroad — and 8% the COVID sit­u­a­tion at home. To some extent these num­bers were rel­a­tive­ly low.

Nation­al­ly, 35% of adults said none of these mar­ket fac­tors were impact­ing their trav­el plans for the next three to six months — and this rose to 53% for the over 65s. Across the board, old­er trav­ellers were more like­ly to say no exter­nal fac­tors would seri­ous­ly impact or sway their plans for an over­seas hol­i­day. In con­trast, young peo­ple were most like­ly to be impact­ed by exter­nal fac­tors (88%), with gen­er­al cost of liv­ing hikes a top concern.

This week, Gatwick Air­port’s South Ter­mi­nal has reopened after shut­ting dur­ing the coro­n­avirus pan­dem­ic near­ly two years ago — and this sig­ni­fies an expect­ed recov­ery for over­seas hol­i­days dur­ing the East­er and sum­mer hol­i­days. We have seen from our research over the last six-months that there is pent-up demand among mil­lions of peo­ple to final­ly get away for a decent hol­i­day abroad. Our lat­est data sug­gests that whilst the ram­i­fi­ca­tions from the Ukraine war are on peo­ple’s minds, for a great many noth­ing will stop them hav­ing the over­seas hol­i­day they have been look­ing for­ward to for so long.

The lat­est ele­phant research also explores how events in East­ern Europe have impact­ed UK con­sumer view­points on high street spend­ing, mon­ey man­age­ment and ener­gy use. For more infor­ma­tion on the lastest research or to book in a free insight ses­sion with the ele­phant team, contact