British Prop Up Euro Holiday League

Even before last night, the British needed a holiday, according to a survey by online sampling specialists Ciao Consumer Access. A survey of 40,000 respondents in France, Germany, Italy, Spain and the UK found that the British take the fewest breaks: last year, a massive 30% failed to get away at all, compared to just 9% of Italians and 11% of Spaniards.

The study is the first of a series looking at consumption and lifestyle habits across Europe. Nearly half the Italians and Spaniards interviewed took regular breaks, escaping from everyday life on between 3 and 9 separate occasions over the course of the year, compared to a meagre 31% of Brits.

However, the British make up for this, to some extent, by travelling 'on the job'. Sixty-two percent of British respondents said that they had, at some time in the course of the last year, gone on a business trip, compared to around one third of the French and Germans, while 27% of Brits take business trips on a regular basis, compared to just one in nine French.

What time they do spend relaxing, the British are determined to spend in relative luxury, judging by the average of £83 per night they spend on hotel accommodation, compared to the economical French whose average spend is just EUR 57 (£38). French and Germans were the most likely to take the car, with around 40% of each making journeys by road over the course of the last year, compared to only 31% of Britons.

Historical links and language influences are as important as ever in our choice of holiday destination. The Brits are the most likely to take their holidays in Ireland, North America and Australasia, while the French showed a preference for Africa, and the Spaniards for Latin America. The Germans and Italians were the most enthusiastic exponents of travel within Europe.

Ciao's web site is at www.consumer-access.com

[Editor's note: if Scottish readers can refrain from pointing out with reference to our first line that not everyone in Britain is depressed by last night's result - we know there'll be the odd celebration North of the Border - we promise in return not to publish any stats relating to Ally's Tartan Army]

All articles 2006-23 written and edited by Mel Crowther and/or Nick Thomas, 2024- by Nick Thomas, unless otherwise stated.

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