UK households set to spend £63.4bn on international travel by 2025
It might be time to pack your bags and grab your sun hat.
The UK is set to become a nation of seasoned travellers by 2025, when British households will become the fourth highest global spenders on foreign trips.
Spending on global travel in the UK in homes with annual earnings over £13,000 is predicted to reach £63.4bn in 2025, up 58 per cent on 2015, according to a new study commissioned by Visa.
On average, each household is estimated to splash £9,300 annually, up from £6,500 in 2015.
Read more: London tops the UK as tourism hotspot
Older travellers will be the driving force behind overall growth in the UK over the next decade. The number of outbound trips taken by over-65s will grow 6.5 per cent annually between 2015 and 2025.
In contrast, overseas trips will grow by 3.8 per cent for 35- to 64-year-olds and, in a possible death knell for the gap year, 1.3 per cent for younger travellers below the age of 34.
Kevin Jenkins, managing director of UK & Ireland at Visa Europe, said:
Britons' love of travelling shows no signs of abating. In the next decade we’ll see an expanding travelling class that will spend a growing portion of their household income on international travel.
The UK will be second only to Germany in Europe, where holidaymakers will spend £63.9bn by 2025, a rise of 31 per cent on 2015.
Read more: This county is a surprise top European tourist destination this summer
China and the US are the highest and second-highest spenders worldwide respectively. China is set to splurge £167.1bn on foreign travel annually by 2025, a spike of 86 per cent on 2015 figures, while the US will spend just over half that amount – £87.7bn, a rise of a third on last year.
Globally, cross-border travel around the world will rise dramatically to £979.9bn in 2025. Roughly 282m households will plan at least one international trip per year by then, up nearly 35 per cent from 2015.