Chilly holiday: How holidays have changed for the British and their visiting guests

Author: Adam Mellows-Facer

Staycations are back after the recent financial crisis, and Adam Mellows-Facer take a look at holidays in and out of Britains over the last century in our continuing series of extracts from the upcoming book, Olympic Britain. Olympic Britain shows through statistics the changing face of Britain since the previous London Olympics of 1908 and 1948.

For all the talk of an ‘influx’ of sports fans to the UK, the overall impact of the Olympic Games on inbound UK tourism is expected to be small. Economists estimate a 3% increase in overall visitor numbers, albeit concentrated in the London summer.

That is not to say the UK will not be a major tourist destination in 2012: around 30m people will visit the UK for business and pleasure this year. More will come from the United Arab Emirates alone than came from the whole world in 1946. The 200,000 visitors in that year mainly came from neighbouring European countries, with tourism from the Commonwealth hit by post-war transport difficulties. Then, as now, American visitors, which peaked in number in 2000, were valued for their high spending power.

Over the same period, overseas travel by UK residents has grown even more dramatically, in both numbers and distance travelled. The growth of air travel, package holidays and regional airports has contributed to a boom in overseas holidaying, which was largely unchecked until the financial crisis hit in 2007. While overseas visits in 1951 were largely limited to jaunts across the Channel or the Irish Sea, one quarter of holidays by UK residents in 2011 were taken outside the EU. However, Spain has long been the top destination and will receive more than 10m British visitors this year.

Received wisdom suggests the growth of Mediterranean package holidays has meant the death of the domestic holiday. That is not entirely borne out by the statistics. While domestic holidaying peaked in the early 1970s, increased prosperity and leisure time mean we still take as many ‘staycations’ as 50 years’ ago.

Coming and going. Visitors to the UK and destinations of British holidaymakers.

This article is taken from Olympic Britain, a forthcoming book from the House of Commons Library. It tells the story of the profound economic and social change in the UK since the two previous London Olympics, in 1908 and 1948, using statistics and expert analysis. It will be published on 9 July and digital copies will be freely available on the Parliament website.