Rising taxes, persistently high mortgage rates, eye-watering energy costs and the shock of inflation are all taking their toll on our spending power. Meanwhile, the cost of flights and foreign holidays continues to rise, especially during the school holidays. A return air fare to Corfu can now cost over £1,300 , and a recent report by Which? found that package holiday prices in 2025 for seven out of ten popular destinations have risen above the overall UK rate of inflation since last year.
Price increases in traditional middle-class favourites – notably Italy, Portugal and Cyprus – have been the steepest of all. According to the consumer organisation, the average cost of a seven-night package holiday, including flights, in the first week of August with a major tour operator in Italy in particular has shot up by 7.4 per cent – nearly three times the rate of inflation.
It’s a double whammy of tightening purse strings and rising prices, yet counter-intuitively, a survey by YouGov last November, suggested that, despite these challenges, the number of British people taking overseas holidays had actually edged up between 2023 and 2024. So what is going on? Are we prioritising our holidays at the expense of making other savings elsewhere, or are the country’s economic woes a mirage? In fact, this slight rise in bookings masks a different, demographic trend. Younger people (principally those aged 18 to 34) are taking significantly more holidays than before, while families .